All Practices
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Build positive relationships with students in 2 minutes a day.
Develop students’ intellectual humility through concept mapping
A fun, fast way for students to develop close friendships
Students learn how to comfort themselves during stressful times.
Students identify the many ways that exist to express gratitude.
Students identify ways they can practice “random acts of kindness.”
Foster positive relationships by speaking kindly about someone “behind their back.”
Students imagine their lives at 40. (Purpose Challenge Practice #5)
Introduce students to “Focus Power,” or the ability to sustain attention and ignore distractions when needed.
Introduce students to “Remember Power,” or the ability to keep track of, update, and use information over short periods of time.
Introduce students to “Stop and Think Power,” or the ability to control impulses and to “think before you act.”
Students practice and build executive function skills in whole-class games.
Students redirect their attention to their breath each time their minds wander.
A cooperative learning technique that engages all students’ participation through movement, discussion, and communication of ideas.
Students will identify the stereotypes they hold and consider the impact those stereotypes have on the fair treatment of athletes.
Use the Circle process to encourage students to safely and respectfully share their level of understanding on an academic topic.
Use the Circle process to build a sense of connection among students and staff by sharing moods, feelings, and moments of joy and pain.
Students develop courage by evaluating an idea or proposition and taking a stance on it.
Students read a text slowly and reflect on its personal meaning for them.
Students explore their thoughts, emotions, or ideas by freewriting on a topic of their choosing, an academic-related question, or an ethical dilemma.
A routine for celebrating each student in your class
Students design a tattoo that symbolizes the things that matter most to them. (Purpose Challenge Practice #6)
Students grow their self-understanding through a contemplative art process that uses their own “scrapbook” of meaningful images.
A game involving balance and teamwork that helps build trust.
Help students (or staff) understand that mistakes are important for learning and growing our intelligence.
A discussion that uses scenarios to explore character and citizenship.
Students provide input on changes that could be made to the classroom to subtly cue kind behavior.
Students shift their beliefs about people’s ability to change.
Teachers and students converse with each other through writing.
Students identify their strengths to increase self-understanding. (Gratitude for Tweens and Teens Lesson 1)
Students reach out to trusted adults to ask what they think are students’ strengths and talents. (Purpose Challenge Practice #1)
A short but powerful number sense activity that shows students the visual nature of math, creativity in math, and that there are many different ways people see math.
Students reflect on what it means to "bear witness" to something.
Students reflect on how the Earthrise photograph offered humans a new way to see the Earth: without borders or boundaries.
Students reflect on how the Earthrise photograph instills a sense of awe and wonder towards our planet.
Students reflect on how the Earthrise photograph instills a sense of reverence and awe, encouraging us to be stewards of the Earth.
Teachers will foster students’ moral identity through selective use of language in the classroom.
Students engage in prosocial (kind, helpful) actions for ten days and reflect on the impact of their actions on themselves and others.
Inspire students to practice intellectual humility by introducing them to what intellectual humility is, what it looks like, and why it is valuable.
Students explore and reflect on their values. (Purpose Challenge Practice #4)
Students use writing as a tool to explore their emotions and challenges
Teachers and students create a safe space to develop strong relationships.
Students think about a time when they felt close to someone in order to foster a sense of belonging and well-being.
In a group meeting, students share their feelings while also building their feelings vocabulary and emotion knowledge.
Students and staff lessen their stress by changing their outlook on a negative event.
Students track their breathing as they trace up and down the fingers of one hand.
Students “finish” math problems by making connections between solutions to problems and everyday life.
Students practice turning complaints into gratitude statements.
In this circle activity, students practice mindful speaking and mindful listening.
A list of discussion questions to help cultivate students’ empathy.
An opening math activity that provides students the opportunity to appreciate different ways of achieving the same answer.
An interactive learning strategy that helps students clarify their own ideas and hear other perspectives—while getting them out of their seats.
A game to develop students' self-control by stopping themselves from moving or dancing when the music stops
Students practice their social skills with each other while learning a new dance move
Spend quality time with people you care about.
A simple way to build students’ academic mindset, trust, and positive identity.
Students cultivate moral reasoning skills and humility through a peer-feedback process focused on P.E. skills.
A norm-setting activity to help create an environment for productive, positive, and equitable group work in math class
Students cultivate greater humility by practicing good listening skills.
Students interview an older person about gratitude, deepening their own understanding of gratitude.
Students write five things they’re grateful for once a day for two weeks.
Students write a letter of thanks and deliver it in person.
Students interpret and role-play a variety of quotes about gratitude.
A game to cultivate students’ focus and attention by listening carefully and remembering the right motion
A game to develop students' memory and attention by remembering what you're supposed to do while doing a different motion.
A game to build students’ focus and attention by practicing careful looking to find the object that another person is thinking of
Broaden students’ thinking and connection to something larger than themselves.
Students hear and share inspiring stories compassionate risk-takers and then develop their own service project.
Students listen to a song or piece of music and observe their responses.
Students mentally send good wishes to someone who is important to them.
Students describe their ideal world and how they might contribute to creating that world. (Purpose Challenge Practice #2)
Students establish and build friendships with classmates in a safe way.
Simple ways for teachers, principals, and staff members to help families of all backgrounds feel welcome in the school community
Students reflect on how their science learning is relevant to their lives.
Students learn that when someone does something kind, it takes time and effort.
Students reflect on a Viktor Frankl quote about why meaning in life is important. (Purpose Challenge Practice #3)
Students use photography or drawing to explore purpose and meaning in their lives.
Students learn to notice sounds, their beginnings and endings, and the silent spaces between each sound.
Students learn to notice body sensations and release sources of physical tension.
A daily mindfulness and music appreciation practice for the whole school or a single classroom
A daily mindfulness and poetry appreciation practice for the whole school or a single classroom
A short practice for mindfully exploring your emotional experience when you help a student
Boost students’ growth mindset in math through a short video and discussion.
A game to build students' focus and attention by remembering when to use motions instead of words.
Students learn how their thoughts can affect them.
A game to develop student's memory and attention by remembering what each person has said and repeating it in the correct order
Students collaborate on the development of classroom norms.
Students take time to reflect on positive experiences, attributes, and/or aspirations.
A brief learning activity that demonstrates the many different ways people see math and builds students’ flexibility with numbers.
Students explore ways to overcome what keeps us from expressing our thanks.
Students express gratitude to people whose actions have benefited society.
Help students plan enjoyable activities as a form of self-care
Review and expand your classroom or school library with books that represent diverse backgrounds.
A process for helping students generate purposeful projects or endeavors
Students choose a quote about purpose and reflect on why it resonates with them. (Purpose Challenge Practice #7)
Create class community by brainstorming ways to stop put-downs.
Build trust and understanding among students by exploring questions of wonder.
Students practice kindness to increase their happiness
Help students calm themselves through a short coloring exercise.
Students cultivate practical wisdom by working through a moral dilemma and deciding on a course of action.
Students discuss the SEL skills touched upon during the activity in which they have just participated.
Foster students’ moral identity through story writing.
Students share their opinions and disagreements in healthy ways.
Students briefly check-in with themselves and focus their attention on their breath.
Students practice appreciating the body’s processes in a deeply mindful way.
Students recognize the costs and benefits involved in a kind act. (Gratitude for Tweens and Teens Lesson 2)
Students look for the good in others by acknowledging each other’s strengths. (Gratitude for Tweens and Teens Lesson 3)
Use the Circle process to encourage self-care among staff and students in all dimensions.
Students write about making long-term goals a reality. (Purpose Challenge Practice #8)
Students observe their breath while relaxing and tensing their bodies, and then practice shaking and freezing their bodies.
A game to develop students' memory and attention by remembering what motions accompany each phrase, and doing them correctly quickly
A game to develop students' self-control by doing the correct (silly) motion instead of the automatic one
A game to develop students' self-control by listening for a key phrase before doing an action
A game to develop students' self-control by managing how they sing a familiar song
A list of strategies for making explicit connections to SEL skills throughout the day in order to reinforce students’ practice of skills
Ways to use SEL for cultivating youth agency and civic engagement
A values-informed process to help students make the best possible ethical choices
Students build trust and inclusion through a quick and fun game that reveals their commonalities.
Students spend a day or two doing a variety of meaningful activities.
Strategies for parents and caregivers that teach their children how to practice to help them achieve their goals
Discussion questions for families to deepen their child’s experience of gratitude
Strategies for parents and caregivers to help teens understand and practice being humble
Create a warm, non-judgmental space for teens to talk about challenges.
Strategies for parents and caregivers to help their children consider offering reparations as part of their apologies
A practice for parents and caregivers to help their child or teen plan enjoyable activities as a form of self-care
Students forge intergenerational relationships while strengthening their digital citizenship and troubleshooting skills.
Students learn how to think gratefully. (Gratitude for Tweens and Teens Lesson 4)
Students learn how the positive emotions from gratitude create a cycle of giving.
Students learn to manage their emotions in a healthy way by identifying the people and places that influence changes in their emotions.
A tool for fostering a supportive and equitable classroom and school environment and for promoting SEL.
Students use dance to learn about the world and celebrate diversity.
Students record three good things that happened to them each day for a week.
Students cultivate courage by making a commitment to engage in a courageous act.
Develop students’ intellectual humility by helping them to ask questions while thoughtfully evaluating evidence.
Grade 4-7 students learn about the three parts of the brain that are involved with emotion regulation, attention, and learning.
A game to develop students' self-control by waiting before doing a series of motions.
Students define gratitude and the many forms it takes.
A game to develop students' memory and attention by keeping track of objects in order to tell which one is missing
Students learn how our different backgrounds give us different perspectives.
Students examine how they face everyday moral dilemmas and consider who and what influences their reactions when conflicts arise.
Through stories, discussion, and creative presentations about true heroes, students foster their compassion for others and see brave community involvement as an admirable, heroic way of life.
A game to build students’ focus and attention by listening carefully to hear who stole the honey pot
A game to develop students' memory and attention by remembering a series of motions and doing them in the correct order
Students respectfully discuss their stance on a current event.
A game to cultivate students’ focus and attention by knowing when it is their turn and the right thing to say
Students learn to observe and accept emotions and body sensations.
