Lesson Materials
Foundation - Lesson 1
Topic: Assertiveness
This lesson introduces students to the Stand Strong Superheroes and the five Stand Strong Superpowers. These superpowers provide children with the foundation to stay safe, build respect, and handle conflict in healthy ways. Lesson 1 focuses on understanding the difference between passive, aggressive, and assertive behavior. Students learn that being assertive helps them express their needs in a safe and respectful way. They also practice calming strategies that support assertive communication. The purpose of this lesson is to equip students with essential tools for problem solving and to reinforce that every child deserves respect and safety.
Foundation - Lesson 2
Topic: Boundaries & Consent
Lesson 2 builds on students’ understanding of assertiveness by introducing personal boundaries and consent. Students learn that everyone has different rules about how they want to be treated, and respecting those boundaries helps keep classrooms and communities safe. Through discussion and role-play, students practice recognizing their own boundaries, noticing when boundaries are crossed, and communicating assertively.
Foundation - Lesson 3
Topic: Emotional Safety
Children deserve to feel both physically and emotionally safe. While physical harm is often easy to see, emotional harm—such as unkind words, exclusion, or bullying—can be just as painful and damaging. This lesson helps students recognize when their emotional boundaries have been crossed and teaches them how to respond assertively. Students also learn the importance of using kind words to create safe and respectful classrooms. By exploring real-life scenarios, students build empathy and practice strategies for managing emotions, responding to unkind behavior, and supporting each other.
Foundation - Lesson 4
Topic: Understanding Physical Abuse
In this lesson, students will build on prior knowledge of emotions, bystanders, and upstanders to learn about intentional versus unintentional harm and the definition of physical abuse. Through discussion, video, and activities, students will learn how to recognize physical abuse, why keeping secrets about abuse is never safe, and how they can make safe choices if they ever experience or have a friend who experiences abuse.
The lesson emphasizes that physical abuse happens when someone with more power intentionally crosses a child’s boundaries in order to harm them with physical force, leaving marks or pain that is still there the next day. Students will explore how power works in relationships, practice identifying safe versus unsafe situations, and review the importance of telling a safe adult if abuse occurs.
Foundation - Lesson 5
Topic: Body Safety
In this lesson, students learn how some unsafe adults may use grooming behaviors to gain children’s trust and create unsafe situations. Through Ray’s story, students explore how grooming works, how to recognize warning signs, and what to do when someone behaves in unsafe or confusing ways. Students also learn the rules about private parts of the body and how to identify safe versus unsafe situations. The lesson emphasizes that abuse is never a child’s fault, that keeping secrets about abuse is never safe, and that it is always OK to tell a safe adult you trust, even if the abuse happened long ago.
We teach this material to children because research shows that school-based prevention programs are effective. A review of 24 studies with more than 5,800 children found that children who receive prevention education are significantly more likely to demonstrate protective behaviors, recognize unsafe situations, and disclose abuse than those who do not receive such instruction (Walsh, Woolfenden, & Shlonsky, 2015). By teaching these skills early, we build children’s confidence, strengthen protective factors, and reduce their risk of harm.
No matter what happens, students are reminded that they can always talk to a safe adult they trust about any behavior that seems unusual or unsafe.
About the Program
The message of Stand Strong • Stay Safe is simple:
- I deserve respect (and so do my classmates/teachers).
- I have the right to be safe (and I know what is safe).
- I have the power to choose (and I can choose an assertive response).
- I will get help (and I will keep telling until I get the help I need).
- It is not my faut if someone harms me.
It is up to adults to keep children safe. Sadly, children must often handle unsafe situations on their own. Like a vaccine against disease, Stand Strong • Stay Safe prepares children to act as their own first line of defense against unsafe situations.
Stand Strong • Stay Safe – Elementary is a safety education curriculum that teaches 2nd-5th Grade children the assertiveness and emotional literacy skills they need to build positive communities, stand up for themselves, and get help when faced with unsafe situations. Through age-appropriate lessons, students are prepared to stay safe and get help when faced with bullying, abuse, neglect, and other challenges.
Stand Strong • Stay Safe - Foundation
This is the updated edition of Sand Strong * Stay Safe - Lower Elementary. This series is taught prior to the Extension series to students in grades 2-5.
- Lesson 1: Be Assertive
- Lesson 2: Boundaries and Consent
- Lesson 3: Emotional Safety
- Lesson 4: Understanding Physical Abuse
- Lesson 5: Body Safety
About the Characters
The characters in the Stand Strong • Stay Safe comics are designed to connect with today’s elementary students. Each character faces a realistic challenge and demonstrates positive character strengths to solve problems in safe and respectful ways.
The characters reflect common situations that can increase a child’s risk for bullying or abuse, including behavior challenges, physical differences, or learning needs. By seeing diverse experiences represented in age-appropriate ways, students learn to recognize unfair treatment, respond safely, and support one another with respect and care.
Curriculum Includes
- 2 vertically aligned curriculum levels (Foundation for 2nd-5th grade and an Extension for 4th-5th graders who have already received Foundation), each consisting of 5 30-minute lessons
- Presentations with video or stories featuring superhero characters, role-play, and discussion
- Home Connections and access to Parent Guide
