Building Relationship Skills

At ASA we are intentional with infusing social emotional learning (SEL) in our daily learning. SEL is a part of our daily living and is integrated across all curricular areas. During this time at home, our students are practicing their social emotional skills daily. According to CASEL’s website, SEL “ ...is the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.”

This week we want to bring attention to relationship skills. CASEL defines relationship skills as, “The ability to establish and maintain healthy and rewarding relationships with diverse individuals and groups. This includes communicating clearly, listening actively, cooperating, resisting inappropriate social pressure, negotiating conflict constructively, and seeking and offering help when needed.”

During this time at home our students are missing their loved ones, friends, teachers and their daily connections. Classroom teachers are continuing to build relationships and carry on their community of learning by bringing their kids together with planned weekly google meets. Students look forward to this time to connect, share their good news, and continue to grow their relationships, which fosters the beauty of remaining connected even when we are not in the school building. Our time of morning prayer, the Angelus Prayer at noon, joining in virtually for weekly mass are only some of the ways we continue to nurture this connection of our community.

Staying connected with friends via class Google Meets! 

During our stay at home order, families are getting creative with connecting with those outside of their homes: Zoom with extended families for a game night, virtual movie nights while sharing laughter, online games with friends and family and FaceTime to grandparents and friends. 

While connecting with those outside of our home takes some creativity, we continue to practice relationship skills right in our homes.  While spending time together and engaging in conversations daily we learn more about our kids but this also allows them the opportunity to practice conversation skills and active listening. 

One way to intentionally build relationships at home is considering a scheduled weekly family game night. Some benefits of family game night allows family members to connect with each other, provides the opportunity to practice taking turns, being patient,  reading nonverbal cues, learning about winning and losing, creating great memories and, of course, fun and laughter! 

What games will you play at your next family game night? Will it be a game of LIfe? Uno? Clue? Monopoly or Trouble? Whatever it is, building and reinforcing social-emotional skills will continue.