Social skill activities for preschoolers?

Question

Can anyone give me some ideas for activities or games to do with preschoolers to teach them social skills?

Answer 1

A game like Elephun or Hullaballo works great. My sister has them both and they are very fun and get her into it.

Answer 2

Bitter gave some really great ideas. One thing I did was to take a shoebox and out something inside it. I explained to my students that we were going to share the surprise. They would get the box, look inside, put the topd back on and pass it. It was a really good sharing activity. Also, you can try role playing in small groups. If there is something in particular they need to work on (expressing their feelings, sharing, so on) you can focus specifically on that.

Answer 3

Circle times: These can be anything like a music session-children take in turns to pass around an instrument-each child has to beat or tap their 'name' eg: An-na is 2 beats...children learn the social skills of being together, each others names and sharing/turn taking.

Obstacle course: Have trampoline and tunnel and child queue to take turns and then move on to next item...turn taking, personal space, safety, encouraging friends etc.

ANY game where there is more than one child can be a social experience. Adults can be on hand to make sure children are sharing and can act as the catalyst for the play.

"Farmers in their dell" is a good one as they sing in a circle holding hands (forming relationships) and they choose friends to go in the middle with them!

Basically if u want to encourage social interactions be the scaffolder-ask them questions, praise them and ensure opportunities are there-eg: take away one toy of which you normally have two or three of(before session) so children have to share...you can then talk about "how can we make this fair", "who's turn" etc