Looking for fun ways to teach social skills to students

Might start with some small group discussions and have students identify social skills and what they look like. Then play a game of charades where you have social skills listed on small pieces of paper and each student (or pair of students) choose one and they have to silently enact that skill. Students in the audience can guess what skill it is and add comments about why they think it's important.

Good that you're thinking of making it a fun experience!

With every good wish.

Have you considered role-playing games? Each player has a set role and has to interact with others to achieve their objectives. RPGs range from the traditional hack-and-slash through spy scenarios and even murder mysteries. My favorite part is how there are consequences for failure and rewards for success.

What I have found success with is getting students into small teams of 3-5 people and give each team a simple problem to solve with brainstorming. You may know that brainstorming is the technique that encourages the participants to come up with as many idea as possible without regard to how practical or even silly they are. That is, there is no criticism allowed. However, it is encouraged that suggestions that build on prior suggestions be generated. After these sessions, each team is then required to present their suggestions for solutions to the rest of the class. We allow the rest of the class to ask questions or to provide more suggestions.

This technique requires participation, shields students from feeling threatened, and focuses on the problem rather than the person. The more times this exercise is performed with changing teams, the more comfortable students get with public exchanges. The small size of the teams encourages individual intereraction, and starting with a size of 3-5 minimizes one-on-one anxiety. Later on, we shift to sizes of two people, which requires it.

We require every student to actively participate and we require teams to support one another. The end result is that students are presenting their ideas with less emphasis on feeling as though they are being personally judged. The reduction in anxiety is a great help in future social interaction. So far, it seems fairly successful, and the students enjoy it.