Healthy Relationships and Empathy (Upper Elementary) Teacher Resource Pack

Healthy Relationships & Empathy — Upper Elementary Teacher Resource Pack

Grades 3–5 | Ages 8–11 | Downloadable + Printable

Help upper elementary students strengthen empathy, friendship skills, boundaries, and conflict-resolution strategies with Building Better Connections: Healthy Relationships & Empathy, a fully teacher-ready SEL resource pack designed for students ages 8–11.

This pack includes 5 structured lessons, teacher lesson plans, student-friendly readings, and a wide variety of hands-on activities that support students in building belonging, navigating peer pressure, handling disagreements calmly, and repairing relationships after conflict. Built with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles, lessons are flexible, accessible, and easy to implement across different learning environments.

This resource pack is fully downloadable and printable, making it ideal for classrooms, homeschools, small groups, counseling settings, intervention support, IEP accommodations, and out-of-school-time programs.

What’s Included

• Teacher/Parent Guide with objectives, rationale, and implementation support

• 5 complete lesson plans with step-by-step teaching guidance

• Student-facing readings with anchor concepts and reflection prompts

• Pre-assessment and post-assessment tools

• Multiple interactive worksheets and skill-building activities per lesson

• Reading guides and optional book suggestions for each lesson

• Universal Design for Learning (UDL) supports for differentiation and accessibility

• Bonus resources including emotion vocabulary tools, classroom goal-setting pages, and reflection guides

All materials are provided in print-ready PDF format for easy classroom or at-home

Skills Students Build

Students will develop essential relationship and SEL skills, including:

• Empathy and perspective-taking

• Inclusion and belonging behaviors

• Friendship balance, trust, and boundaries

• Peer pressure awareness and healthy decision-making

• Calm conflict resolution and communication tools

• Accountability, apology skills, and relationship repair strategies

Chapters / Lessons Included

This pack includes a complete instructional sequence:

• Pre-Assessment

• Lesson 1: Building Belonging & Empathy

• Lesson 2: Maintaining Healthy Friendships

• Lesson 3: Peer Pressure & Making Healthy Choices

• Lesson 4: Navigating Conflict

• Lesson 5: Repairing & Strengthening Relationships

• Post-Assessment

• Additional Resources & Teacher Tools

  Healthy Relationships and Empat…

Perfect For

• Upper elementary classrooms (Grades 3–5)

• SEL and character education instruction

• Advisory and community-building lessons

• Counseling and small-group intervention

• IEP and social skills support

• Homeschool and co-op learning

• After-school and out-of-school-time programs

Why This Pack Matters

Upper elementary students are navigating more complex friendships, group dynamics, and peer influence—often without explicit instruction on how to communicate respectfully, manage conflict, or repair relationships after mistakes.

This teacher-ready resource pack makes relationship skills clear, teachable, and practice-based, helping students build the empathy, responsibility, and communication strategies they need for stronger friendships and healthier school communities—now and as they prepare for middle school.