Morning Meetings:  Morning Meeting is a time every day where students and teachers explore and practice social skills and merge social, emotional and academic learning. 

Goals and Purpose of Morning Meeting:

• To set the tone for respectful and engaged learning 

• To create a positive and trusting community, fulfilling students’ need to belong, to feel significant, and to have fun

• To model and practice social and emotional skills including our SEL Theme of the Month

• To merge social, emotional and academic learning

Additional SEL Instruction in Classrooms:  

SOURCES OF STRENGTH

Sources of Strength is an evidence-based suicide prevention program. It exists to spread hope, help, and strength as well as increase protective factors in the lives of the peer leaders and their classmates. Some of the protective factors include help seeking behaviors, meaningful relationships with trusted adults/mentors, healthy activities, positive family support and friends, generosity, and a willingness to break codes of silence and secrecy when it comes to mental health concerns of their friends/peers. We are using the Sources of Strength curriculum in 5th grade. Lessons are interactive with games, emotional regulation practice, and creative expression designed to:

• Increase student and adult connections with one another

• Invite students to identify the Strengths (protective factors) they have in their lives that help them through life’s ups and downs (see Wheel image below)

• Develop understanding of how our brain and body communicate to help us regulate

• Increase emotional vocabulary

• Identify and practice a variety of healthy emotional regulation strategies

• Understand the importance of seeking help for oneself, as well as how we can connect others to help in times of need.

• Empower students and staff alike to be agents of healthy culture change

PBIS: According to the Colorado Department of Education, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a prevention-based framework for organizing behavioral supports that enhances academic and social outcomes for all students. At Little we are committed to developing a structure that recognizes positive behaviors and shapes expected behaviors in our school.  All members of the Little community are expected to contribute to the community by demonstrating: 

• Respect

• Responsibility

• Kindness

Benefits of PBIS:

• Provides systematic behavior expectations

• Prevention focused

• Increase instructional time

• Improve academic achievement

• Improved overall school climate

How can you support your student at home?

• A core principle of PBIS that you can use at home is the 5:1 rule.  For every corrective statement made, provide five positive statements or praises of your child's behavior.  

• Use your schools themes and expectations to reinforce student behavior at home

• Talk to your student about what these behavior expectations look like at home and in the community