How to Foster Social-Emotional Improvement in Pre-Kindergarten

Pre-kindergartners are capable of remarkable social-emotional development through continual self-improvement. By practicing and enhancing their social-emotional skills, pre-kindergartners can better understand the intricacies of relationships, form healthy connections with others and themselves, and manage their behavior.

In this lesson, pre-kindergartners learn social-emotional self-improvement and why it is important. To make the lesson engaging, two determined characters named StarBoy and StarGirl talk about the positive actions of managing their gifts and getting along well with others. With the help of these two friends, pre-kindergartners remember these positive actions and practice each to enhance their social-emotional skills.

Afterward, the beloved hedgehog puppets Squeak and Mimi join and help the students. Through a puppet play, the two hedgehogs remind them of the positive actions for self-honesty or telling themselves the truth.

To wrap up the lesson, the ICU messages from the ICU box are read in class. The positive messages they contain serve as positive reinforcement that motivates the students to continually improve themselves. By doing positive actions for themselves and others, they feel good about themselves!

To thrive in school and beyond, pre-kindergartners must develop social-emotional skills. Enhancing these skills can help them gain clarity of thought, self-awareness, and the ability to manage their emotions and resources effectively. Furthermore, these skills enable them to empathize with others and form healthy, trustworthy relationships. Developing these skills is critical for children to succeed in all areas of life.