5 NO PREP Activities for your Social Skills Group

Diana Cortese Author

Social Skills games that require no physical preparation and can be played anytime.

Kids don’t care about how cute your worksheets or bulletin boards are. They want to move and laugh. 

Here’s 5 activities that target different social skills and require no material preparation.

1. Charades 

What? Kids take turns acting out different actions in front of their peers. You can just whisper an action for them to do. 


If you want to put a twist on it, you can play  Emotion Charades! This is when the kids have to not only act out something but also show the emotion they pick while acting. Trust me, they love it! You can have them make it up themselves, tell them quietly, or use visuals if you think it will work best for your students.

Why play? The children watching and guessing strengthen their attention skills and ability to interpret non verbal cues. The ones acting the charades out learn to communicate through body language. Overall, they are having fun together which really helps develop an overall sense of classroom community.

2. Would You Rather?

What? Ask your students (or have them ask each other) questions that have them choose between 2 things. Mix up silly with semi-serious. For example, "Would you rather live in space or under the sea?" or "Would you rather have great grades or great friends?" 

Why Play? Excellent way for peers to get to know each other and sparks lot of good natured banter.

3. 2 Truths & a Lie

What? Students think of two true things and one false thing about themselves. Some like to call it 2 Truths and a Wish if you want to avoid the word lie or just mix it up a bit.

Why Play? Kids learn about each other as well as practice reading facial expressions as they call others' bluffs on which one the lie is. It also works on perspective taking as they want to get into the minds of the peers to try to fool them. 

4. Never Have I Ever

What?  Give your students scenarios to see if they have ever done or experienced certain things. For example, "Never have I ever stayed all night playing video games." I like to mix silly things and also more socially relevant ones to spark some group discussion.

Why Play? This game is an excellent way to learn surprising and funny things about each other. It also can really lighten up previously embarrassing situations or give the kids a reason to share more about each other.

5. Silent Ball

What? Ok you do need one physical item for this one. Students sit in a circle and throw the ball to each other but are not allowed to say a word to each other. They need to gain the attention of their peers just by eye gaze, heads nods, or other gestures. I like to set a time to this one and see if we can break our record. 

Why Play? Kids increase their ability to read non verbal cues, have to pay attention to and read the cues of the one who has the ball.

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