Social emotional learning activities can do so much more than just build emotional skills. When we adapt SEL for ESL learners and multilingual kids, we create space for real connection, confidence, and language growth. All at once.
If you’ve ever tried teaching social emotional learning (SEL) in a multilingual classroom, you know it’s not as simple as handing out a worksheet and asking kids how they feel. For ESL learners, social emotional development is deeply tied to language access, cultural understanding, and trust.
These social emotional learning activities are easy to implement, don’t require any printables, and include simple ways to adapt them for students who are still building their emotional vocabulary in English.
Whether you teach elementary or middle school, these ideas will help your students feel safer, more seen, and more connected; in any language.
This post is all about social-emotional learning activities.
What Is Social Emotional Learning?
Social emotional learning (SEL) is the process of developing the skills we need to understand and manage emotions, build positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. It includes things like:
- self-awareness,
- empathy,
- emotional regulation,
- social problem-solving.
When educators ask, “What is social emotional learning?”, they’re really asking how to support students in becoming more emotionally aware, resilient, and connected. For ESL learners and multilingual students, this process can look a little different; because social emotional development depends on language, culture, and the safety to express yourself in ways that feel natural.
That’s why focusing on social emotional learning skills in a way that’s inclusive and accessible is so important. It’s not just about what we teach, but how we adapt it to meet students where they are: linguistically, emotionally, and culturally.
Looking for books to support your social emotional learning activities? You’ll love these!
11 Social Emotional Learning Activities for ESL Learners
There are so many beautiful ways to bring social emotional learning into your classroom, but what works for native speakers doesn’t always land the same for ESL learners.
That’s why these activities are designed to support both emotional expression and language development, with no printables or complicated prep required. Whether you’re teaching a newly arrived student who’s still learning basic English or a multilingual tween with big feelings and bigger eye rolls, you’ll find something here that actually works.
1. Emotions Activity for ESL Learners: Feelings Charades with Gestures
This classic game gets a multilingual twist. Start by creating a list of emotion words your students are familiar with (or introduce 3–5 new ones if they’re ready). Think: excited, frustrated, proud, nervous, sleepy. Then, have one student silently act out an emotion using gestures, facial expressions, and body language, while others guess which feeling it is.
Why it works:
It builds social emotional skills and gives ESL students a safe way to show they understand an emotion before they’re expected to say it. Plus, it’s hilarious to watch a room full of kids try to mime “embarrassed” without sharing giggles.
Language adaptation tip: If your students are at an early stage of English, allow guesses in their home language, or provide a simple feelings word bank on the board. As confidence grows, they’ll naturally shift into English. This activity is especially great for younger ESL students or those with lower language confidence. It’s expressive, inclusive, and keeps everyone moving.
Looking for more ways to teach emotional vocabulary? This post on teaching emotions to ESL students has helpful sentence starters and strategies you can pair with these activities.
2. SEL Activity for ESL Learners – Morning Check-In Circles
A morning check-in circle is a simple but powerful way to help kids build self-awareness, connect with classmates, and settle into the school day. In a multilingual classroom, this ritual can become a safe space where ESL learners slowly gain the confidence to share how they feel. Even if they’re not ready to say it in full sentences yet.
Start with a short prompt like: “How are you feeling today?” or “What color matches your mood?” Invite students to answer with a word, a color, a gesture, or even just a drawing. Model your own check-in first (bonus points for being honest and saying something like: “sleepy but trying my best”), and keep the atmosphere low-pressure.
Language adaptation tip: Offer sentence starters on the board like “I feel ___ because ___” or “Today I am ___.” For students newer to English, let them point to visuals, choose from a few options, or respond in their home language. Over time, you’ll be surprised how their vocabulary—and willingness to share—grows.
3. Outdoor Social Emotional Learning Activity – The Emotion Walk
Need to release some energy, get the wiggles out and sneak in a bit of emotional reflection? The Emotion Walk is your new best friend. Whether you’re headed outside or just looping the hallway, assign different emotions to specific movements or areas:
- Walk slowly and mindfully = calm
- Stomp with big heavy feet = frustrated
- Skip lightly = excited
- Hunch and shuffle = nervous
As students move through the space, ask them to embody each feeling for a few seconds. You’ll be surprised how expressive even your quietest ESL learners can be when words aren’t required. And honestly? Watching a group of kids tiptoe like “anxious cats before gym class” is a whole vibe.
Language adaptation tip: After the walk, circle up and reflect. Invite students to match each movement with an emotion word or phrase in English; or in their home language if they’re still developing vocabulary. This SEL activity helps bridge the gap between emotional awareness and language expression, especially for students who aren’t yet ready to describe how they feel out loud.
4. Social Emotional Skills Activity – Role-Playing Common School Scenarios
Drama class meets social-emotional learning, with zero acting experience required! In this activity, students role-play everyday school scenarios that might stir up big feelings:
- A friend doesn’t want to play
- You forgot your homework
- Someone bumps into you at recess
- You’re nervous about a presentation
These situations help ESL learners rehearse both language and emotions in a safe, playful setting. And let’s be honest: some kids live for the chance to pretend they’re the teacher and give a dramatic lecture about “respecting personal space.”
Language adaptation tip: Keep it simple. Offer sentence starters like:
- “I felt ___ when ___.”
- “Can I please ___?”
- “Next time I could ___.”
You can also let students use gestures, props, or drawings to support their expression if words don’t come easily. Practicing social and emotional skills through storytelling helps make abstract concepts feel real and gives ESL learners low-pressure opportunities to speak.
5. SEL Vocabulary Activity – Mood Meter with Multilingual Labels
A mood meter is a simple tool that helps students name what they’re feeling, and possibly reflect on how intense that feeling is. Most versions are color-coded, with emotions grouped by energy and pleasantness (e.g., red = high energy + unpleasant, like anger or frustration).
For multilingual learners, this visual support is gold. It builds emotional vocabulary while also validating that all feelings are welcome.
Language adaptation tip: Invite students to add labels in both English and their home language. You can even let them decorate the meter with words, drawings, or emojis that make sense to them. This small shift helps ESL learners feel seen and makes it easier to find the right word when emotions run high.
If you’re thinking of adding a cozy, emotionally supportive space in your classroom, this post on calming classroom decor ideas will give you tons of inspiration.
6. SEL Activity for Language Development – Collaborative Storytelling About Feelings
Collaborative storytelling is a powerful way to support both language development and emotional expression, especially for multilingual learners. In this activity, students build a story together, one sentence (or drawing!) at a time. The twist? Every part of the story must include a character who feels something, and why.
Example:
“Jamal was nervous because he couldn’t find his backpack.”
“Then Sofia felt proud because she helped him look.”
It’s a playful, low-pressure way to use emotional vocabulary in context, and helps ESL learners practice sentence structure while connecting feelings to events.
Language adaptation tip: Provide sentence stems on the board:
- “___ felt ___ because ___.”
- “After that, ___ felt ___ when ___.”
For students who need extra support, allow a mix of spoken English and home language, or have them draw their sentence instead. You’ll be surprised how quickly they pick up new emotional words when they’re part of a shared story.
7. Creative SEL Activity – Art-Based Emotion Portraits
Sometimes emotions are easier to draw than to describe, especially for multilingual learners still building confidence in English. In this activity, students create self-portraits that reflect not just how they look, but how they feel. You can use mirrors, outlines, or just blank paper and colored pencils.
Invite them to think about:
- What color matches your feeling today?
- What would your eyebrows or mouth look like?
- Is there something you want to add in the background?
These creative SEL activities work beautifully with mixed-language groups because they focus on self-expression first, vocabulary second. Some students may want to label their portraits with feeling words, short phrases, or even emotion storms (a blend of different feelings), but others might just let the image speak for itself.
Language adaptation tip: Give optional prompts in multiple languages, or let students create a short sentence (in English or their home language) to explain their portrait if they choose. This strategy invites emotional nuance without pressure to “perform” in a second language.
8. Social Emotional Learning Activity – Breathing Buddies & Calm Corners
Some kids need to talk it out. Others just need a moment to breathe, with a stuffed animal on their belly and absolutely no one asking questions. These kinds of social emotional learning activities give students tools to calm their bodies without feeling like they’re being punished or sent away.
A breathing buddy can be anything soft. Bonus if it has a funny name and backstory! Kids lie down, place the buddy on their stomach, and focus on slow breaths as it gently rises and falls. It’s a simple way to anchor the breath and calm down.
A calm corner is a cozy space in the classroom where students can reset. Think cushions, low lighting, fidgets, or emotion visuals. These quiet spaces are especially helpful for ESL learners who may not yet have the language to express what they’re feeling out loud.
Language adaptation tip: Offer visuals or simple phrases like “I need a break because ___” or “I feel ___ right now.” For students newer to English, a picture or non-verbal signal can say everything they need. These SEL activities in the classroom help students reconnect with themselves and build emotional vocabulary over time.
Want more ideas for helping kids regulate their emotions? These calming classroom activities are simple to set up and really do work.
9. SEL Activity for ESL Students – Compliment Chains
If you’ve ever tried to lead a group of middle schoolers through a genuine moment of emotional connection, you know the mix of magic and mayhem that can follow. But this one? It actually works.
Compliment Chains are simple: one student gives a compliment to another, then that student passes one on to the next, and so on until the whole circle is glowing a little brighter (and maybe blushing a bit too). It can be verbal, written on sticky notes, or even drawn as a chain of positive words on a poster.
For ESL students, this is a great way to practice kindness and sentence structure at the same time. Think:
- “I like how you helped me with ___.”
- “You’re really good at ___.”
Language adaptation tip: Provide a compliment sentence bank on the board, or let students prepare theirs ahead of time. And yes, some will giggle, others will pretend it’s too cheesy for them, but by the end, someone’s going to ask if they can do it again soon. And that’s such a great feeling, when you know it’s working!
10. Social Emotional Learning Activity – My Emotion Map
Where do your students feel most confident? Most anxious? Most relaxed? In this activity, kids create a simple emotion map by drawing or labeling different places in their daily routine—home, school, playground, bus—and matching each one with a feeling.
You can use a blank paper divided into zones, or draw a path with labeled stops like a mini life map. For ESL learners, this is a great chance to build self-awareness and practice new emotional vocabulary in context.
Language adaptation tip: Offer prompts like:
- “At ___, I feel ___.”
- “I like being in ___ because ___.”
Allow home languages or visual symbols where needed. One student’s emotion map might have five smiley faces and a pizza doodle, another’s might include a quiet note about missing family abroad. Both are valid, and both open the door for connection.
11. SEL Interview Activity – How Do You Show Happiness?
Emotions aren’t expressed the same way in every culture—and that’s something your students already know, even if they can’t explain it yet. This partner interview activity helps them notice and celebrate those differences.
Students pair up and ask each other simple emotion-based questions like:
- “How do you show you’re happy?”
- “What does someone look like when they’re mad?”
- “Is it okay to cry at school in your country?”
For multilingual learners, this opens the door to talk about emotional skills in a way that honors their background and invites curiosity, not correction.
Language adaptation tip: Let students interview each other in English, home language, or a mix. Whatever helps them express their real thoughts. You can even collect anonymous answers and create a class poster called “We all feel differently, and that’s okay.”
The great thing is that you’ll probably learn something too. One student might describe joy as dancing with their auntie in the kitchen. Another might say it’s staying quiet with their cousin under the stars. There’s no wrong answer: just connection.
Tips for Adapting SEL Activities for ESL and Multilingual Learners
Even the most meaningful social emotional learning activities can fall flat if students don’t feel emotionally or linguistically safe. Here are a few ways to adapt your SEL strategies to better support ESL and multilingual learners, without needing to reinvent your entire lesson plan.
Use visuals and body language
Emotions are easier to show than explain. Use facial expressions, gestures, emojis, or emotion cards to give context. Students who can’t yet name “worried” might still point to a worried face.
Invite home language when needed
Students often understand emotions more deeply in their first language. If it helps them express or connect, allow them to use it, even alongside English. You’re building bridges, not walls.
Scaffold emotional vocabulary
Offer sentence stems like “I feel ___ when ___” or “Today I am ___ because ___.” Post these visually and model them often. Repetition builds confidence.
Normalize different expressions
Not every culture expresses anger with stomping or sadness with tears. Give space for quiet reactions, indirect expressions, or body-based cues. Curiosity beats correction.
Create space for non-verbal participation
Drawing, acting, choosing images; all of these are valid forms of emotional expression, especially for students still building up their spoken language.
With a few intentional choices, your SEL time becomes a space where every student can feel seen and start growing the language and confidence to express what’s already inside them. Have fun with it!
Why Social Emotional Learning Activities Support Language Development
There’s a reason why social emotional learning activities are so powerful for language development, especially for ESL learners. Emotions live in the body first, long before we ever find the right words. That’s why SEL offers a natural way to bring in language that feels purposeful, human, and deeply relevant.
When students describe how a character feels in a role-play, share what their drawing means, or even point to an emotion visual during a morning check-in, they’re connecting emotional vocabulary to real experiences. This kind of authentic use sticks better than memorized lists or scripted conversations.
Plus, emotion-based language is often more engaging and motivating for students, because they’re not just learning how to speak English, they’re learning how to express who they are in English. That’s powerful.
Final Thoughts on Social Emotional Learning for ESL Learners
Whether you try one or all of these social emotional learning activities, you’re giving your ESL and multilingual learners something truly valuable: a way to connect, express themselves, and grow in more than one language. You don’t need fancy printables or perfect English to help students feel seen. You just need intention, curiosity, and a little creativity.
💬 If you give any of these a try, I’d love to hear how it goes! You’re always welcome to reply to one of my emails or leave a comment on the blog to share what worked, what made your class laugh, or even what totally flopped (we’ve all been there). Your insights help build a braver, more connected learning space for everyone.
