10 Life Skills Activities for Students to Help Them Succeed

For a fulfilling life, one needs a set of psychosocial competencies and relevant skills.

These skills set an individual up for success across various stages of life. And in this increasingly complex world, the need for life skills for students is at an ALL-TIME HIGH!

What are these crucial skills that determine success?

Why are they important for students?

How can we help our online students develop these skills in everyday life?

Be with us to explore the answers to these questions.

Read on.

What Are Life Skills?

Life skills are the abilities that help an individual deal with numerous challenges in life. Students life skills promote positive behavior and also teach them conflict resolution.

After this definition, let’s understand the importance of life skills for students in the next section!

What is the Importance of Life Skills for Online Students?

When students attend school, they develop numeric literacy and learn about several theoretical concepts segregated within subjects. For decades, school education has been designed, and revamped around academics, with little or no focus on life skills activities for students. However, stakeholders have now realized the importance of life skills for students in both their personal and academic lives.

Research proves that students life skills increase attendance levels, enhance classroom behavior, and improve academic achievements.

<In India, 46% of the students missed school at least 1 day a week>

Some examples of life skills are:

Communication
Time management
Problem-solving
Critical thinking
Stress management
Decision making
Creative thinking, etc.

Let’s move on to the best life skills activities for students to build these skills in them!

10 Life Skills Activities for Online Students

1. Money Management Activities for Financial Management

Life skills activities like budgeting projects, saving money in a piggy bank, and setting financial goals are great for students. Combine these activities with number games and percentages to teach real-life concepts like discounting, pre-planning, and backup creation to avoid financial constraints. Plan age-appropriate activities to teach kids essential money-saving habits from the formative years of learning.

2. Board Games for Thinking Skills

Puzzles, and games, can be another way to plan an activity for life skills. For online school students, teachers can make use of online dice, sheets, and digital game boards. Plan these activities around the examples of life skills to hone these skills in students.

3. Cooking for Multiple Skills

Cooking is a great activity that teaches students various concepts like proportions, time management, ratios, nutrition knowledge, etc. Cooking salads, sandwiches, soups, cold coffee, etc. boost student’s confidence, and makes them independent in handling kitchen work.

Let students carry out these cooking activities. And encourage them to show their results during the virtual class. Cooking is one of the best students life skills that nurtures many others. So try this one out for sure!

4. Role Play to Build Empathy

Empathy is another one of the important life skills for students that helps them understand other people’s perspectives. Plan activities like role play to help students step into other’s shoes. And do not forget to incorporate opportunities to find solutions for real-life situations.

5. Gardening to Foster Patience

Gardening is yet another one of the best life skills activities for students to teach them an invaluable virtue, patience!

Plan activities to grow, nurture, and monitor plants, and discuss findings (challenges, and good results) in the virtual class. This excellent activity for life skills is great for most age groups. Besides, it also turns out to be an excellent activity for kindergarten.

6. First Aid – To Save Lives (Handle Exigencies)

Basic first-aid activities can save lives and help students learn the right ways to respond to a medical emergency. Plan these activities around imaginary medical situations, and share life-saving tips to handle bites, minor accidents, sprains, burns, etc. It is a great idea to introduce a ‘Near Miss’ activity every week wherein students can share some examples from their real-life about preventing accidents or handling situations. Make it more interesting with reinforcement techniques like start charts, applauses, etc. to develop these basic skills for students.

7. Meditation for Mindfulness

Meditation is also a great activity to build students life skills. It teaches them the importance of focusing on one’s emotional well-being. Include simple 5 minute-meditation activities like deep breathing, lion’s breath, etc. in your everyday virtual classes to make a big difference through a small change.

8. Speaking Activities for Communication

Different skill activities like debates, brainstorming sessions, and on-the-spot speaking opportunities enhance the most valued skill, communication. Utilize your virtual classroom for collaborative discussions to the fullest. And make these interactive classes a great platform for these life skills for students.

Some Facts about Communication Skills

Effective communication improves productivity by up to 25%.
In a survey, 40% of workers agreed that poor communication can reduce trust in the team. This weightage was 54% for remote workers.

9. Time Management Activities

Activities related to time management teach students the right ways of reflecting on their ways of managing time. Create opportunities for students to prioritize tasks, and allocate time to these as per their respective importance. All this will help students understand the importance of following schedules to enjoy leisure time. Demonstrate the best To-Do lists, well-maintained calendars, or screenshots of mobile applications (like Any Do) to set good examples during the virtual classes.

10. Collaboration Activities for Teamwork

Last on this list of life skills for students are collaborative activities to teach students about the value of teamwork. Try to make all the activities collaborative as much as you can. Because it will help students learn the ultimate skill for workplace success.

Small group activities and team-based game formats are perfect for boosting collaboration skills in students.

Final Words

Life skills translate into greater success in many areas of life. And holistic education is the only answer to building students life skills through the classrooms.

Be it an activity for kindergarten or a role-play for high school students, these skills are the most relevant skills for survival and happiness.

Level up your classes with these ideas to plan life skills activities for students. And remember it’s WORTH ALL YOUR EFFORT!

Thanks for Reading!

Frequently Asked Questions

Why start teaching life skills at such a young age?
Students must develop these foundational abilities through games and an activity for kindergarten. It helps them to become independent from an early age.
How can I motivate my child if they’re resistant to learning these skills?
Explain the importance of life skills for students in the dynamic world. Cite examples from real life and incorporate some experiences of their role models to make it more meaningful.
Are all these skills suitable for preschoolers?
Not all activities are meant for preschoolers. However, an activity for kindergarten should be planned keeping the age-appropriate life skills for students in mind.
How to teach life skills in a fun way?
Life skills activities are super fun for students. Plan these activities in your classroom to develop these skills in a positive learning environment.
What are some life skills activities for preschoolers
You can plan an activity for kindergarten related to gardening, swimming, table manners, pet care, personal hygiene, etc.