TK - First Grade
Developmental Characteristics
Physical
Enjoy long periods of free play
Developing eye-hand coordination
Enjoy small group cooperative play
May require rest after high-energy play
Improved body coordination; yet still can fall easily
Social Emotional
Eager to receive adult praise
Enjoy dramatic play
Eager to engage in new activities/adventures led by involved adult
Eager to identify with older children
Enjoy exploring new materials and equipment
Can be easily frightened by novel or strange events
Prefer play in small groups
Like responsibilities they can handle
Learning to cooperate with others, but may at times display selfish behavior
Cognitive
Understand language better than they speak
Are interested in present; vague concepts of past/future
Eager to learn
Ask many questions
Define things by their use
Developing a sense of humor
Communicate best within a small group of peers
May need guidance of adult when starting a new task
Week 8: Boss of My Body
Students play Duck, Duck, Goose with a different silly movement style each round (penguin, robot, skip, gallop, crawl), then complete a "Boss of My Body" worksheet exploring how their brain controls their body's movements.
Week 7: Draw What I Draw
Students play multiple rounds of Hot Potato at varying speeds, then follow along with a step-by-step drawing video (ice cream cone or Hello Kitty) pausing as needed to keep up.
Week 6: Don’t Pop the Bubble
Students blow bubbles and try not to pop any, then color quietly while soft music plays — challenged to stay quieter than the music or go completely silent.
Week 5: Zones of Regulation Relay
Students act out emotions for each Zone of Regulation (blue, green, yellow, red) when called by name, then do a Zones Relay — moving around the room to music in silly ways and rushing to a colored zone when the music stops to practice coping strategies for that zone.
Week 4: Mystery Box Challenge
Students follow along to a Yo Gabba Gabba stretching and breathing song on the rug, then take turns reaching blindfolded into a mystery box while practicing self-control by keeping their guess to themselves until everyone has had a turn.
Week 3: Night at the Museum
Students play Night at the Museum (staying frozen as statues while a "janitor" with a flashlight tries to catch them moving), then fold and decorate paper airplanes and must wait for a whole-class countdown before flying them.
Week 2: Who Took the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?
Students sing "Who Took the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?" in a circle with a slap-clap rhythm, passing the chant around to each classmate. Then they decorate nila wafer cookies with frosting and sprinkles, challenged to resist eating until they're done decorating.
Week 1: Simon Says, Red Light Green Light
Students play Simon Says (winners or respectful sitters get to lead a round), then play Red Light, Green Light to the Squid Game audio, with eliminated students practicing silent cheering on the sidelines.
Week 7: Understanding Community
Students play Just Like Me (standing and doing a silly dance when a teacher-called attribute applies to them) across 5 rounds of shared traits. Then each student picks a kindness phrase, paints and decorates a rock with it, and places it in the class community garden.
Week 6: Point of View
Students play This or That by choosing between picture pairs displayed on the board, then listen to general descriptions of everyday items (a pizza, a pet, a family, a toy, a dessert) and draw their own interpretation of each — sharing their drawings with the class to discover how everyone pictured the same words differently.
Week 5: Bodies are cool (TK-2)
Students play Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes with 2-3 volunteers leading the class at different speeds, then listen to a read-aloud of Bodies Are Cool by Tyler Feder, draw 1-2 bodies from the book with an explanation of why they're cool, and finish with Strike a Pose — each student gets a 5-second runway walk or dance move in front of the class to a class-chosen song.
Week 4: Boundaries & Respect (TK-2)
Students play Listen and Learn in pairs — counting 1, 2, 3 back and forth while progressively replacing numbers with claps, stomps, and snaps across 5 rounds — then watch and sing along to "The Boundaries Song" before listening to a read-aloud of Don't Hug Doug (He Doesn't Like It) and discussing what boundaries are and why they matter.
Week 3: Displaying emotions (TK-2)
Students sing a modified "If You're Happy and You Know It" with verses for happy, mad, sad, and excited — acting out each emotion with their face and body — then play Emotions Bingo (1-3 rounds) using the feelings chart to identify emotions called out.
Week 2: Identifying emotions (TK-2)
Students dance to music and freeze while striking the called-out emotion (happy, mad, sad, worried, calm) for 5 rounds, then play Emotions Charades where each student gets 30 seconds to act out a teacher-assigned emotion from the feelings chart while classmates guess.
The Rabbit Listened (TK-2)
Students take turns adding one block at a time to build a class structure for the class stuffy, then listen to a read-aloud of The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld, and finish by making paper Magic Listening Ears (bunny ears) out of construction paper or a paper plate.
Week 2: Uplifting Others (TK-2)
Students build a Friendship Web by tossing yarn across a circle while saying something positive about the person they throw it to, then watch a Charlotte's Web storytime video, color and cut out a farm animal to glue on a popsicle stick, and use their puppet to practice walking up to peers and asking them to play.
Week 1: Positive Self Talk (TK-2)
Students play Counting to 10 — working together as a class to count without overlapping or repeating numbers — then listen to a read-aloud of I Like Myself by Karen Beaumont, practice a guided mindful breathing minute, and complete an affirmation worksheet with a self-portrait to share with the class.
Week 6: Reflection and celebration (TK-2)
Students play SEL-Style Musical Chairs — walking around chairs to music, but instead of eliminating anyone, everyone works together to find a spot when the music stops — then rotate through the SEL Scenario Celebration, where the teacher reads real-life scenarios (a friend crying, wanting to yell, fighting over a toy) and students respond or act out the best SEL solution.
Week 5: Conflict Resolution (TK-2)
Students watch a movement brain break video about solving problems, then play the Scenario Challenge — the teacher dramatically acts out wrong choices (grabbing, interrupting, yelling) while students call out "NOT A GOOD CHOICE!" and shout Fix-It responses like using words, taking a breath, or walking away.
Week 4: Decision making steps (TK-2)
Students play Zoo — competing to pick a different animal body pose than the leader on the count of three — then practice the Stop, Think, Choose strategy through a movement game (TK–K) where they freeze, point to their head, and move on cue between different locomotor actions, or act out scenarios applying the three steps (1st–2nd).