What Makes a Good Friend

This interactive lesson for 1st-grade students explores the essential qualities of a good friend through storytelling, brainstorming, and creative activities. Students will identify 'friendship ingredients' like kindness, sharing, and helping to build a supportive classroom community.

Ttkeya.void

What Makes a Good Friend

Ttkeya.void

Iceberg Investigators Presentation Slides

Weaving Worlds

A 3-lesson unit on culture, identity, empathy, and building an inclusive school community. Students explore the cultural iceberg, share personal perspective narratives, and collaborate on actionable school-wide inclusion plans.

Cynthia Rios

Social Media Showdown

A high-energy, collaborative staff training session built around a competitive trivia game. Staff work in teams to analyze realistic scenarios and master MetroWest YMCA's Social Networking Policy (Appendix IV, Updated 6/2024), emphasizing child safety, professional boundaries, and brand protection.

Jen Hyman

Showdown Team Scorecard

A clean, print-ready single-page team scorecard for 20-30 staff members divided into squads. It features space for team details, selection indicators, and dedicated white writing blocks for teams to cite policy rules from Appendix IV.

Jen Hyman

True Influence Journey

A comprehensive restorative leadership and peer advocacy sequence designed for students transitioning to middle school. It guides students from understanding their social influence to actively protecting peers and spreading positive school culture.

Marcia Cullinane

Inclusion Architects

Students apply their deep listening and empathy skills to design a school-wide inclusion campaign or classroom standard, designing collaborative action items.

Cynthia Rios

Showdown Slide Deck

An engaging, high-contrast 14-slide presentation used to project the interactive trivia game during the training. It details real-world scenarios, game rules, and reveals answer explanations citing official rules from the MetroWest YMCA Social Networking Policy.

Jen Hyman

Norm Navigators

A comprehensive 4-day small-group social-emotional learning sequence for grades 3-5. Aligned with the CASEL Social Awareness framework, this unit teaches students to identify how expectations and social norms change across different school environments and how to adapt their behaviors successfully.

Erin McFarland

Perspective Passages

Students engage in active empathy and narrative exchange, analyzing how personal experiences and cultural backgrounds shape our perspectives of shared environments.

Cynthia Rios

Showdown Facilitator Guide

A comprehensive, two-page print-ready facilitator guide for leading the Social Media Showdown staff training. It contains game instructions, pacing guides, team division tips, and detailed policy explanations for each round based on the MetroWest YMCA Social Networking Policy (Appendix IV, Updated 6/2024).

Jen Hyman

Crew Control Cooperation

A 3-day small group curriculum for middle schoolers (grades 6-8) focused on cooperation, role delegation, navigating power dynamics, and ensuring equitable team participation. Aligns with CASEL's Relationship Skills and Responsible Decision-Making core competencies.

Erin McFarland

Iceberg Investigators

Students explore the concept of the cultural iceberg, distinguishing between visible elements of culture and deep, invisible values, to recognize the richness of identity.

Cynthia Rios

Inclusion Architects Presentation Slides

A 4-slide presentation for Lesson 3, explaining the campaign design project guidelines, campaign pathways, and presentation instructions.

What Makes a Good Friend