“Social and emotional learning (SEL) is an integral part of education and human development. SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.”
~ CASEL.org





I am Special
At PlayThrive, every child and every teacher is special and shines in their own unique way. We celebrate the differences and similarities. We are proud of who we are individually and together.
Yes You Can
We trust every child has great abilities to learn and grow. We use positive teacher language to set clear expectations, describe where children do well, and guide them to notice the next step going forward.
Power of Words
We teach children vocabulary to identify emotions. As their Mandarin proficiency grows, we learn in-depth descriptions to further express feelings, share stories, and support one another.
Finding Common Ground
We mediate each child to say “How I feel. What I want.”, then facilitate children to find common ground together.
我觉得 I feel…
我想要 I want…
我们可以 We can…
We have an excellent team of teachers that continually grow in the understanding of SEL so they can develop creative ways to help our students. Our teachers are trained in the Responsive Classroom approach to integrate SEL into engaging academic lessons. We also enjoy the SEL consulting sessions with Melody Lowman, M.A. very much.
To help children develop positive self-esteem and self-discipline, here are insights from Melody in Loving Discipline, Managing Anxiety, and Promoting Resiliency.