Every Child Ready - Criterion 2.2

Every Child Ready materials meet expectations for fostering children’s positive social orientation and self-identity (2.2a). 

Evidence across lessons, routines, centers, and play-based activities shows that these opportunities are intentional, explicit, and consistently embedded throughout the program. Five units specifically explore positive social orientation and self-identity.

• Unit 1:  My New Classroom: Connecting and Caring (weeks 1 and 4)

• Unit 2: Thinking of Me: Understanding Myself and My Emotions (weeks 1 and 2)

• Unit 4: Thinking of You: Noticing and Understanding Others

• Unit 5: Connecting with Others: In the Classroom Together

• Unit 6: Connecting with Others: Playing Together

The materials include meaningful and explicit opportunities for children to explore and express their individual identities. In the Art Studio within Unit 6, children create “All About Me” collages that support personal storytelling and peer connection. At the Art Easel in Unit 2, children explore ideas of self and family by creating Family Portraits. Additional identity-focused learning appears in Hello, Me: Dante’s Self-Portrait in Unit 2, where children observe themselves using mirrors and share characteristics they appreciate before creating self-portraits. These experiences affirm children’s unique perspectives and foster a sense of belonging within the classroom.

Agency and autonomy are regularly supported through routines and structures that give children meaningful choices. The Centers Overview and Tour in Unit 1 introduces the classroom centers and emphasizes that children select their learning centers twice daily, strengthening independence and ownership. Choice-based opportunities span Gross Motor activities, AM and PM Read Alouds, and Learning Lab sessions, in which children vote for their preferred activities. Classroom jobs, selected during Monday Morning Meeting, allow children to choose roles such as line leader, greeter, or materials manager, reinforcing responsibility, contribution, and participation in the classroom community.

Vocabulary and concepts related to identity and emotions are intentionally introduced and reinforced. In AM Small Groups focused on Self-Confidence and Pride in Unit 2, children learn terms such as 'confidence' and 'pride,' with support from storybooks including I Like Myself! and Me and My Family Tree. These lessons help children understand the language of identity and emotion, providing tools to express their feelings and experiences more effectively.

Social awareness and interpersonal skills are supported through structured lessons and everyday interactions. AM Small Groups within Unit 6, Playing Together, and PM Small Groups within Unit 1, Playing with Peers, include explicit practice in turn-taking, cooperative play, and simple conflict resolution. These experiences take place across small-group instruction, push-in opportunities, and free-choice centers, ensuring that social skill development occurs in multiple contexts throughout the day. Children engage in collaborative experiences that build empathy, teamwork, and peer relationships.

Overall, Every Child Ready materials provide rich, consistent, and developmentally appropriate opportunities for children to develop a strong sense of self, personal agency, social understanding, and interpersonal competence. Activities and routines across centers, small groups, read-alouds, and play experiences demonstrate a coherent, well-supported approach that helps children feel seen, valued, and empowered in their learning environment. 

Every Child Ready materials meet expectations for support of emotional development and regulation (2.2b). 

The materials support children's emotional development by helping them recognize, express, and regulate feelings, as well as offering calming strategies. Robust opportunities appear across learning and play settings for identifying and expressing feelings. This is evident in Unit 2, where the focus is “Understanding Myself and My Emotions,” and three of the centers in Week 4 directly connect to identifying and expressing feelings. Read-alouds, journal entries, and small groups also include lessons dedicated to labeling and expressing emotions. These experiences appear throughout later units, including in Units 6 and 8 through Read Aloud and journaling activities focused on feelings.

The materials also offer varied opportunities to practice calming and breathing strategies to manage emotions and co-regulate on the path toward self-regulation. In Unit 3, teachers are reminded that young children are not yet fully independent in self-regulation and that expectations should be developmentally appropriate. Calming is the social-emotional theme in this unit and is practiced almost daily during the morning meeting, through two read-alouds, and in weekly small groups. Teachers introduce calming steps, a calming corner, and calming strategies, with students sharing their preferred strategies in Week 3 morning meeting. The skill is revisited in Units 2 and 6 with new breathing strategies and activities such as acting out feelings with puppets during centers.

Guidance for setting up the classroom environment to support social-emotional learning (SEL) is included. Under the Resources tab, the Environment Quality Scale offers four rubrics for creating supportive SEL environments. The Curriculum Overview lists materials packaged with the program, such as feelings posters, calming strategy posters, breathing cards, and talk-it-out cards, totaling nine resources for the classroom environment. These supports are introduced in lessons, often in small groups, and reinforced during the morning meeting and subsequent small-group and flexible small-group lessons. For example, a calming space is first introduced in Unit 1 Week 3 through guided release steps and is reinforced in Unit 3 Week 1 small-group, read-aloud, and Unit 3 Week 3 journal entry.

The materials are designed as Tier I or general instruction for all children on social and emotional topics. Teachers have access to small group lessons throughout the curriculum on calming, expressing emotions, and talk-it-out strategies. 

Overall, Every Child Ready materials provide robust, varied, and consistent support for children in learning to identify and express emotions and to begin self-regulating and calming themselves when needed.

Every Child Ready materials meet expectations to support behavioral self–management (2.2c). 

The materials provide a variety of activities that support children’s listening and attention skills through playful and structured experiences. In Unit 1, Week 2, children practice “Body Ready, Ears Listening” in small groups and draw themselves paying attention during journal activities. Later units continue this work through the Gross Motor Stop and Walk Game (Unit 3) and the Small Group Listening Mirror Game (Unit 5). These consistent opportunities demonstrate strong support for listening and attention development across the year.

The materials also address rule-following behaviors and setting expectations, especially early in the year. In Unit 1, Week 1, community agreements are reviewed in small groups, the question of the day is addressed, and read-aloud lessons are held. The read-aloud David Goes to School includes explicit prompts for discussing turn-taking and expected behaviors. Units 3, 5, and 7 continue reviewing classroom expectations during small groups, pm centers, and morning meeting. A separate PDF instructs teachers to co-create classroom agreements with students, but this practice does not clearly appear in lesson-level materials, leaving support for rule-setting present but not fully integrated.

The materials include support for understanding consequences. A Connected Families resource, Logical Consequences for Young Children, provides guidance for teachers, and an additional handout offers examples of supportive responses and ideas for practice. For children, three read-aloud lessons, one in Unit 1 and two in Unit 9, include brief discussions of consequences through targeted questions. These resources provide a foundation for addressing consequences, with opportunities to further integrate these concepts into classroom activities.

The materials offer strong support for predictable routines throughout the day. Lesson internalization protocols exist for all major components, including the morning meeting, centers, the learning lab, and the question of the day. Maintaining a visual schedule is assigned as a student job, and the How to Launch Manual outlines teacher and child actions for setting up routines. Family-facing resources, such as the Connected Families Rules and Routines resource, extend this support to home environments. In Unit 1, greeting routines and center procedures are introduced by Week 2. However, some essential routines, such as explicit instruction for clean-up procedures, are absent from the lesson materials, leaving routine development generally strong but not fully comprehensive.

Support for flexibility and adaptability is evident in the materials. During the first week of Unit 1, teachers practice transitions and review the daily schedule using picture cards. Occasional lessons encourage adaptability, such as acknowledging that mistakes can be fixed in Build a Bridge for Bear (Unit 3, Week 3) or promoting flexible play in Playing with Mud (Unit 8, Week 1). Unit 8: Problems are Okay! What do I need? In this unit, children learn skills to adapt when something does not go as expected. Unit 8 read-alouds focus on strategies to use when something does not go as expected, including Hello, Solutions! Let’s Figure It Out.

Impulse control receives consistent attention through small groups, morning meetings, push-ins, and read-alouds. In Unit 1, Week 3, children learn how to wait their turn during conversations, and in Unit 8, Week 3, they practice the Stop, Think, Act process. Related concepts are reinforced in Read Alouds, such as The Talking Piece in Unit 1 and Stop and Think routines in Unit 8 morning meetings. These lessons provide structured and repeated opportunities for children to practice self-control strategies.

There is extensive evidence of instruction that supports thoughtful decision-making and problem-solving throughout the materials. The Small Group “Talk It Out” in Unit 9, Week 4, allows children to draw and discuss problem scenarios, while numerous other small groups teach “Stop and Think”, “Talk It Out”, and ways to handle disappointment. Push-in guidance in Unit 1, Week 3 supports turn-taking and trading toys during center play, and teacher monitoring tools help track conversations about classroom expectations. Read-alouds such as David Goes to School also reinforce discussions about choices, expectations, and behavior.

Overall, Every Child Ready materials provide structured and play-based opportunities to support listening, attention, self-regulation, and problem-solving across the year. Daily routines, small groups, and read-alouds reinforce rule-following, impulse control, and decision-making, while predictable routines and family resources support consistency. The materials offer a strong foundation in self-management and social skills, with opportunities to further integrate supports into lesson-level materials.

Every Child Ready materials meet expectations for supporting problem-solving and conflict resolution (2.2d) 

Materials provide varied opportunities for peer interaction through both unstructured play, such as free-choice centers and outdoor play, and structured activities, such as morning meeting, gross motor, small groups, and learning labs. These experiences promote teamwork and relationship-building, which encourage the use of kind words, helping peers, and taking turns.

Conflict resolution is explicitly taught through strategies like “Talk It Out” and “Stop Think Act.” Introduced early in Unit 1 and reinforced throughout Units 8 and 9, these strategies guide children in expressing feelings, listening to others, and choosing solutions. Tools such as posters, Act It Out cards, and Talking Pieces, along with video demonstrations in the Well-Being Hub, provide consistent modeling and practice. Lessons, read-alouds, and journal prompts further integrate problem-solving into daily routines.

The materials emphasize empathy and emotional understanding through activities that teach children to identify and name feelings, compare emotions, and respond with kindness. Units 1–4 introduce feelings vocabulary and display visual supports, such as Feelings Posters, while Unit 4 includes explicit empathy lessons and strategies for helping peers. Games, role-play, and thematic read-alouds reinforce these skills, creating an environment where acknowledging emotions and practicing empathy are central to conflict resolution.

Overall, Every Child Ready provides consistent, well-integrated support for the development of problem-solving and conflict-resolution skills. Opportunities for peer interaction are embedded across both structured and unstructured settings, fostering collaboration and positive relationships. Explicit instruction in conflict resolution strategies, along with ongoing reinforcement through routines, tools, and activities, supports children in applying these skills in meaningful ways. In addition, a strong emphasis on empathy and emotional understanding helps create a supportive environment where children can recognize feelings, respond thoughtfully, and navigate social situations effectively.