Social Activities for 5-Year-Olds

Run team relay races where the goal is to help your team finish, not to win alone — building sportsmanship and group spirit.

Plan and carry out one secret act of kindness each day for a week — building empathy, planning skills, and the joy of giving.

Use simple puppets to act out common social situations and feelings — giving kids a safe way to explore big emotions through play.

Partners draw portraits of each other while looking carefully at details — practicing observation, kindness, and social connection.

Retell a familiar story from a different character's point of view — building the ability to see situations from someone else's perspective.

Set up an obstacle course that requires two people to complete — holding hands, carrying objects together, and communicating to finish.

One person describes a picture while the other draws it without looking — a hilarious test of communication and listening skills.

Shake a bedsheet together to bounce lightweight balls in the air — a whole-group cooperation game that requires teamwork to work.

Paint rocks with kind messages and pictures and leave them in the neighborhood for others to find — spreading joy and building empathy.

Complete a bingo card full of kind acts over a week — holding doors, giving compliments, helping a sibling — making kindness a game.

Prepare questions and interview a family member about their life — building listening skills, curiosity, and intergenerational connection.

Set up a pretend grocery store and take turns being the shopper and cashier — practicing social scripts, manners, and cooperation.

Make a glitter calm-down jar and create a visual plan for handling frustration — giving kids real tools for managing big feelings.

Write 'recipes' for being a good friend — listing ingredients like kindness, listening, and sharing — to explore what friendship means.

Dance wildly when music plays and freeze instantly when it stops — a high-energy game that builds impulse control and group participation.

Build a feelings thermometer with a sliding marker to check in on emotion intensity daily — a visual tool for understanding big feelings.

Sit in a circle and take turns sharing one feeling from the day — a simple daily ritual that normalizes emotional expression for everyone.

Play a simple board game together with clear house rules about winning and losing — teaching good sportsmanship from the start.

Draw an empathy map for a character or real person — what they think, feel, say, and do — to build deep perspective-taking skills.

Spend five minutes each day drawing or writing about feelings in a dedicated journal — building emotional awareness and self-reflection.

Paint a giant picture together on a long sheet of paper — learning to share space, materials, and creative ideas as a team.

Play a cooperative board game where everyone wins or loses together — removing competition and focusing on teamwork and strategy.

Learn and practice a simple 4-step process for solving disagreements — giving kids real tools for handling conflicts independently.

Write compliments for each family member and read them aloud from a jar — building positive relationships and affirming language skills.

Write and deliver thank-you cards to community helpers — mail carriers, librarians, firefighters — teaching gratitude and social awareness.

Set up a pretend classroom where kids take turns being teacher and student — practicing following directions, patience, and leadership.

One partner wears a blindfold while the other guides them through a simple course — building trust, communication, and careful listening.

Keep a balloon in the air as a team without letting it touch the ground — a simple, laugh-filled game that requires cooperation.

Turn room cleanup into a fast-paced relay race with sorting categories, timers, and teamwork. Kids learn responsibility while having a blast.

Make a feelings thermometer from calm to upset, and practice identifying where you are.

Take turns adding to the same drawing, creating a picture together.

Collaborate to build a blanket fort, making decisions and dividing tasks as a team.

String beads or braid yarn to make friendship bracelets for someone special.

Assign a daily helper role with age-appropriate tasks, building responsibility and pride.

Cut out faces from magazines showing different emotions and make a feelings collage.

Make puppets from old socks and put on a show. Builds language, creativity, and confidence.

Draw a treasure map and follow clues to find hidden treasure. Builds spatial thinking and pre-reading skills.

Kids sit in a circle and take turns giving specific, genuine compliments to each other — a simple social game that practices empathy, kindness, and public speaking.

Share two true facts and one made-up one about yourself while others guess the fib — a hilarious way to learn about each other.

Practice reading body language by freezing and guessing how someone feels based on their pose — sharpening social awareness skills.

Stand in a circle, grab hands across, and work together to untangle into a circle without letting go — a classic team challenge.

Take turns adding sentences to create a wild collaborative story — building listening skills, creativity, and group participation.

Act out different emotions and scenarios, practicing empathy and emotional vocabulary.

Take turns giving each other specific compliments, building social-emotional skills.

Sit in a circle and each person shares one thing they're grateful for today.

Discuss social scenarios and practice responses: What if someone takes your toy?

Raid the closet and put on a fashion show! Builds self-expression, confidence, and gross motor skills. Zero materials needed.

Roll dice with pictures and create stories. Builds narrative skills, vocabulary, and imagination. No materials needed.

Set up a pretend restaurant for creative, social, and language-rich play. Zero materials needed.