MTSS: Tier 1 Support

When students carry emotional distress or face relational challenges, their focus on learning takes a backseat. In a world where kids are more anxious than ever, teaching them how to navigate and manage their big feelings—like anxiety—is key to unlocking their social and academic potential. By empowering children with coping skills, we’re setting them up for greater confidence, connection, and success in all areas of life.

Students will learn that difficult feelings, such as anxiety, are a natural reaction to stress. They will be equipped with strategies to recognize and manage these feelings before they become overwhelming.

Students will be taught techniques like deep breathing, reframing negative thoughts, making plans, and breaking tasks into smaller steps. These tools empower them to manage anxiety and approach challenges with confidence.

Students will gain the ability to identify physical signs of stress and learn how to take proactive steps to calm down. They will also understand when and how to seek help from trusted adults when stress becomes too difficult to handle alone.

• Understanding the stress response (fight, flight, freeze)
• Stress management techniques for daily life
• Perfectionism
• Extreme shyness
• Social anxiety
• Self-confidence
• Comparing
• Worry
• Feeling Scared
• Emotional Regulation Part I, and Part II
• Self-Perception
• Automatic Negative Thoughts

Friendship is an important factor in both physical health and emotional well-being, but friendship skills don't come naturally for everyone. Teaching kids how to create and maintain healthy friendships is essential. By breaking down what makes a friendship supportive versus harmful, we empower children to understand the qualities of a good friend and recognize the importance of mutual respect and kindness. Let’s guide kids in learning the skills to be a good friend and help them know what to look for in friendships, building stronger connections that support them both now and in the future.

Students will become adept at identifying subtle forms of bullying and relational aggression, such as backhanded compliments and gossip. They will also acquire strategies to respond to these behaviors confidently and assertively, promoting healthier interactions and classroom communities for everyone.

Students will learn the importance of responding to others with kindness, even during difficult situations, and gain an understanding of how their words and actions can impact the emotional safety and well-being of others in friendships.

Students will develop the ability to navigate the ups and downs of friendships, learning how to manage hurt feelings and respond to challenges and conflict in constructive ways.

• Navigating Ups and Downs in Friendships
• What to Do When Someone’s Unkind
• Don’t Throw Away Friendships
• What's a Backhanded Compliment?
• How To Respond to a Backhanded Complement
• Short on Gossip 
• Long video on Gossip 
• "Then I'm not playing"
• Communication is More than Words
• Why Emotional Safety Matters
• Resting Lemon Face
• A Person's Behavior 
• When Someone is Rude to You
• Why Seeing the Good

Long videos: Conflict Resolution Part I, and Part II