This year at Bethlehem, we will be implementing Second Step during our morning meetings! Second Step is a widely used social-emotional learning (SEL) program for students from pre-kindergarten through high school that teaches essential human skills like empathy, emotion management, and problem-solving. Below you will find more information about each Unit and what the students will be learning each week.

Unit 1: Growth Mindset & Goal Setting

Lesson 1: Time to Pay Attention

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will learn that paying attention can look different depending on the situation, for example, listening to the teacher during a lesson, or looking both ways before crossing the street.

Try This at Home

Ask your child to show you how they can pay attention, for example, when you are reading a story with them, explaining a task, or crossing the street.

Lesso 2: Everyone Gets Distracted

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will learn that a distraction is something that takes their attention away from something else. They’ll learn different ways to manage distractions, such as reminding themselves to focus, turning away from the distraction, changing places, or politely asking someone to stop a distracting behavior.

Try This at Home

When you need to pay attention or focus on a task at home, ask your child to suggest some ways you can manage distractions.

Lesson 3: You Did It!

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will reflect on different skills they’ve learned and talk about how practice and continued effort helped them get better.

Try This at Home

Talk with your child about different tasks and skills they have learned to do by themselves at home, for example, making their bed, getting themselves dressed, etc. Remind them that it took time and practice to get better at these things.

Lesson 4: Helpful Thoughts

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will practice using helpful thoughts to encourage themselves and keep going while learning a dance with their classmates.

Try This at Home

Ask your child to suggest some helpful thoughts to encourage you or another family member to complete a challenging task (for example, a school/home/work project, or an exercise routine).

Lesson 5: We Can Do It!

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will show what they’ve learned about paying attention, managing distractions, and practicing as they learn to draw Pepito, a character from Second Step Elementary animated videos.

Try This at Home

Ask your child to tell you about their experience learning to draw Pepito. Encourage them to draw a family portrait with Pepito in it as a way to keep practicing.

Unit 2: Emotion Management

Lesson 6: Noticing Feelings

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will practice using body language and context clues (looking at the person’s face and body, thinking about what’s going on in the situation) to figure out how someone is feeling.

Try This at Home

Ask your child to tell you how they think others around them might be feeling, for example a sibling, or a character in a story, a movie, or a TV show.

Lesson 7: Sometimes We Feel Worried

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will learn to use body language and context clues to figure out when someone feels worried. They’ll practice looking at the person’s face and body, as well as thinking about what’s going on in the situation.

Try This at Home

Encourage your child to notice when others around them might feel worried. Have them practice using body language and context clues to figure out when family members, friends, or characters in books, movies, or on TV might be feeling worried.

Lesson 8: Feeling Calm

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will learn to use body language and context clues to figure out when someone feels calm. They’ll practice looking at the person’s face and body, as well as thinking about what’s going on in the situation.

Try This at Home

Encourage your child to notice when others around them feel calm. Have them practice using body language and context clues to figure out when family members, friends, or characters in books, movies, or on TV might be feeling calm.

Lesson 9: Feeling Frustrated

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will learn to use body language and context clues to figure out when someone feels frustrated. They’ll practice looking at the person’s face and body, as well as thinking about what’s going on in the situation. They’ll also learn about a new strategy for feeling calm when they get frustrated: slow counting.

Try This at Home

Encourage your child to notice when others around them feel frustrated. Have them practice using body language and context clues to figure out when family members, friends, or characters in books, movies, or on TV might be feeling frustrated.

Lesson 10: Noticing Clues

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will show that they can use body language and context clues to figure out how someone is feeling. They’ll also show that they know ways to help themselves feel calm when they encounter strong feelings.

Try This at Home

Ask your child to tell you some ways they’ve learned to feel calm when they get upset. Have them teach you how to use slow counting to feel calm.

Unit 3: Empathy & Kindness

Lesson 11: The Power of Kind Acts

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will learn that a kind act is something they can do to help someone feel good. They’ll practice suggesting kind acts to do for people in different scenarios.

Try This at Home

Encourage your child to think of a kind act they could do for someone, for example a sibling, grandparent, or neighbor.

Lesson 12: Ways to Be Kind

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will learn and practice two ways they can be kind to others: asking, “Are you okay?” and offering to keep someone company.

Try This at Home

Help your child think of a family member or close friend who could use some company. Encourage them to ask the person, “Would you like some company?”

Lesson 13: Offering Kind Acts

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will learn and practice two types of kind acts: offering to help someone and inviting someone to join.

Try This at Home

Help your child think of a kind act they can do for someone involving offering to help or inviting them to join. Support your child in carrying out the kind act.

Lesson 14: Practicing Kind Acts

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will role-play doing kinds acts in response to different scenarios.

Try This at Home

Ask your child to tell you about the kind acts they and their classmates have been learning about at school this week.

Lesson 15: Demonstrating Kind Acts

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will show what they’ve learned about kind acts as they role-play doing kind acts for others in a variety of contexts.

Try This at Home

Choose a day of the week (for example, Wednesdays) as “kindness day.” Help your child think of kind acts they can do for family members, friends, or neighbors. Write the kind acts on the calendar for the next several weeks.

Unit 4: Problem-Solving

Lesson 16: How to Say the Problem

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will learn how to state a problem in a respectful way, without blame or name calling. They’ll practice identifying problems and then state the problem respectfully.

Try This at Home

Children may be tempted to blame others when they’re upset about something. Encourage your child to avoid blame by describing what happened without focusing on who is at fault.

Lesson 17: Was It an Accident?

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will learn helpful ways to respond to a problem caused by accident. They’ll practice phrases for apologizing: "I’m sorry. It was an accident. Are you okay? How can I help?"

Try This at Home

When accidents occur at home, take time to apologize and encourage your child to do the same, using the new phrases they learned at school this week.

Lesson 18: Ask for What You Need

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will learn the importance of asking for what they want or need in order to solve a problem. They’ll practice making polite requests with the phrases, “Can I, please . . . ?” and “Could you, please . . .?”

Try This at Home

Ask your child to sing the problem-solving song they learned this week. Have your child teach you the tune and sing it together. Here are the lyrics:

Can I, can I, can I? Could I, could I, could?
When I have a problem, these words help me feel good.
Can I, can I, can I? Could I, could I, could?
I can ask for what I want to help me feel good.
I know what I want right now, I want to play with you.
Can I please, could I please, play that game too?
Can you, can you, can you? Could you, could you, could?
When I have a problem, these words help me feel good.
Can you, can you, can you? Could you, could you, could?
I can ask for what I need to help me feel good.
I know what I need right now, I’m feeling really sad.
Could you please talk with me about that fight we had?
Can I, can I, can I? Could I, could I, could?
I can ask for what I want to help me feel good.
Can you, can you, can you? Could you, could you, could?
I can ask for what I need to help me feel good.
When I have a problem, these words help me feel good.

Lesson 19: We Can Make It Better

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will learn and practice ways to make amends to start to solve a problem.

Try This at Home

If disagreements or hurt feelings occur at home between siblings or family members, help your child think of a way to make amends, help others feel good, and start to solve the problem.

Lesson 20: Solving Problems

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will show what they’ve learned about solving problems and suggest ways characters in a comic can apologize, ask for what they need to solve the problem, and make amends.

Try This at Home

Help your child practice their problem-solving skills at home. Reinforce the importance of apologizing, asking for what they want or need, and finding a way to make amends when they encounter a problem.