I can think of lots of academic activities, but what about ideas for teaching social skills through categorization?
One idea is to incorporate the use of photographs of people with clear facial expressions indicating a variety of emotions. Teach the students how to recognize the meaning of these facial expressions and have them sort the photos into groups. Another activity is to have a small-group discussion about the characteristics of friends versus strangers. Having students generate a list of what describes a friend versus a stranger is a valuable visual tool. Body language can be categorized as well. Through role playing, watching videos, and looking at photos, students can learn to recognize the meaning of nonverbal signals. Appropriate prosocial behaviors at home versus at school can be another topic for categorization of social skills. Given examples of behaviors typical of students from their age group, the students would be guided to decide whether these behaviors would be appropriate for school, home, or both.
