Social skills are not practiced in a vacuum. Instead, they are practiced with other people, hence use of the word "social." Understanding the social context in which social skills are practiced will help students to develop the skills they need. One idea related to the family theme is to fill a bulletin board with several pieces of paper listing family member names: mom, dad, sister, brother, aunt, uncle and cousin. The students then fill in these sheets with information about their own family members, including at least one observation about how they interact with these family members. Another idea is to fill a bulletin board with social roles in the community -- parent, police officer, politician, businessperson -- and have the students fill in their ideas of how they should interact with people in these roles.
Bulletin boards are not just used to teach abstract principles about social skills. They can also be used as a medium for actively practicing social skills. One idea for a social skills bulletin board involves using a blank board as a medium for having students send messages to one another, such as compliments or friendly notes. To use the board, the students post their friendly notes on it. Another idea involves using the board to post daily tips on communication skills. On this bulletin board, you post one new message (for example, "look people in the eyes when you talk to them") every day, in large, colorful letters.
One of the most important social skills is the ability to detect how a person is feeling based on facial expression. You can help students develop their skills in this area by posting images of different facial expressions (e.g. frowning, smiling, blank) on a bulletin board, and asking the class to guess which emotions are being expressed on which pictures. Another, related idea involves posting the names of different emotions on pieces of paper on the bulletin board and having the students attempt to draw facial expressions that capture these feelings.
Bulletin boards are not only useful for activities that take place on the board itself; they can also be used to post ideas for skills exercises. One bulletin board idea involves posting a new social skills exercise every day of the semester. For example, on Thursday, you can post a team building activity, then on Friday, you can post an empathy building activity. Another idea is to post a weekly calendar on a bulletin board and have a list of daily activities on each day of the calendar. Unlike the previous activity, in this activity, the weekly schedule repeats over and over every week, so the students do the same activities every week.