The Cornerstone School · grades K–5
Social-Emotional Foundations
Naming feelings, keeping friends, settling disputes — the quiet skills every classroom and childhood runs on.
Happy, sad, angry, scared, and the in-betweens — where feelings live in the body and what naming them does.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~6 hours
Unit I — Feelings Have Names
Happy, sad, angry, scared — and the in-betweens · Where feelings show up in your body · Feelings change; none of them is forever
Unit II — Big Feelings
What anger is for · Worry, and what shrinks it · Naming a feeling makes it smaller
Unit III — Other People's Feelings
Reading faces and voices · The same event, different feelings · What to say when a friend is sad
Joining a game, keeping a promise, mending a quarrel — friendship treated as a skill worth practicing.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~6 hours
Unit I — Starting
How to join a game · Introducing yourself · Sharing and taking turns
Unit II — Keeping
Listening so friends feel heard · Keeping promises, small and large · When friends want different things
Unit III — Mending
Everyone makes mistakes with friends · A real apology has three parts · Starting over after a hard day
Noticing what your mind is doing, settling it when it storms, and pointing it at one thing at a time.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~8 hours
Unit I — Noticing
What your mind is doing right now · Breath as an anchor · The quiet minute, practiced daily
Unit II — Settling
What to do when you are too angry to think · Counting, breathing, walking away well · Naming the size of the problem
Unit III — Focusing
One thing at a time · What to do when attention wanders · Making a boring task finishable
Disagreement without cruelty — listening first, arguing fairly, and repairing what the argument bruised.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~8 hours
Unit I — What Conflict Is
Disagreement is normal; cruelty is not · Wants versus needs in an argument · Listening before answering
Unit II — Fair Fights
Saying it with I-statements · Finding the thing you both want · Compromise, and when not to
Unit III — Repair
Apologies that fix things · Forgiving without forgetting the lesson · Asking an adult: when a conflict is too big