At The Positivity Project, we’re always listening, learning, and improving our curriculum to ensure our Partner Schools have the best possible tools to empower educators. Each school year, we work hard to introduce updates across all grade levels to strengthen our lessons, expand our resources, and better meet the needs of students, educators, and families.
Annual Updates
Weekly Lessons
The curriculum team reviews each week’s lessons at least three weeks before they are scheduled on our school-year calendars, making updates as needed. All video links are re-checked one week before the lessons are scheduled to help minimize disruptions caused by broken links. On average, two to three lessons per strength are revised during each update cycle. Decisions are guided by Partner School feedback, lesson quality, and content relevance.
When educators tell us that a particular lesson resonates with students or has become a teacher favorite, we may keep it in place longer.
Because P2 weekly lessons are differentiated by grade level, students encounter new lesson content each year.
P2 for Families
Videos and quotes are updated within P2 for Families every year.
P2 Student Planners
Each new edition of the P2 Student Planners features a fresh collection of quotes.
Big Additions for 2026–2027
This year, we’re expanding our resources to support students, educators, and families in new ways:
- High School Career Readiness Resources: Help students connect character strengths to real-world skills through our new High School Calendar, Portrait of a Graduate Toolbox, and stand-alone career readiness activities designed to prepare them for future success. (Learn more here.)
- Pre-K-K Scripted PBLs: Two of our most popular Scripted PBLs — Kindness App and Morning Meeting — now include differentiated versions designed to engage our youngest learners.
- P2 Teacher Lesson Planner: Stay organized throughout the school year with a lesson planner aligned to either the August or September calendar and designed to weave character into every week. (Learn more here.)
- P2 for Families Printables: These resources combine our popular Character Cards with P2 for Families content, giving Partner Schools a printable, non-digital option to send home.
- P2 for Families Weekly Parent Newsletter and Activities: Families who sign up for our free weekly newsletter receive conversation starters, activities, and practical tips that further extend the shared language of character and connection from school to home.
Expanding Resources and Support in 2025–2026
During the 2025–2026 school year, we added new resources and strategy tools to support our Partner Schools:
Student Engagement Strategies: Based on Partner School feedback, developed a toolbox of student engagement strategies to support teachers during instruction, linked to Slide #2 all weekly slide decks (Pre-K–12), and embedded throughout the slides for grades 6–12. - Tier 3 Toolkits: Adding a Pre-K–K grade band for all toolkit topics
- Middle School and High School Electives: select lessons throughout all courses are being updated.
- Spanish Translation: P2 resources are now fully available in Spanish (previously, only the weekly slide decks and P2 for Families were available), the only exceptions are Mindful Moment and MS/HS Electives.
- Dr. Justin D. Garwood’s study, “Positivity in Action: Character Education through the Positivity Project,” published in the International Journal of Emerging Trends in Social Sciences, highlights P2’s positive impact in elementary, middle, and high schools.
Highlights from 2024–2025
Last year brought deeper differentiation, increased usability, and more support for implementation:
- Spiral Review lessons were differentiated from grade bands to include separate slide decks for individual Pre-K–12 grade levels for each of the six Spiral Review weeks throughout the calendar
- Major update of the Mindful Moment resource to add Mindful Pause for grades Pre-K–5. Links to this new resource were added to each of the Days 1–5 slides within the weekly lesson slide decks.
- Morning Announcement Scripts Updated: Based on Partner School feedback, we added a set for Pre-K–K, changed the format and updated the content for Elementary and Secondary scripts
- Weekly Strength Family Letters – based on Partner School feedback, the weekly letters were updated to simplify content for parents
- Developed MTSS menu for P2’s Tier 1, 2, and 3 resources to support schools in building P2 resources into their schools’ MTSS processes
- Introduced 1-Page Implementation plans to support school-wide implementation
- Introduced Role-Based Checklists to support school-wide implementation
- Added 12 new presentations to P2 for Educators: 3 Slides
- Extensive updates to secondary slide decks
- Dr. Justin D. Garwood’s study, “Universal character education to support inclusion for students with emotional and behavioural challenges,” published in the International Journal of Emerging Trends in Social Sciences, highlights how P2’s strengths-based approach, rooted in positive psychology, fosters belonging, prosocial behavior, emotional regulation, and stronger teacher-student relationships. It demonstrates how P2 complements PBIS frameworks with low-prep, high-impact lessons that build a shared language of character. Findings reinforce that P2 integrates seamlessly into an MTSS framework as a proactive model for addressing behavioral challenges.
Highlights from 2023–2024
P2 meets the criteria for a Tier 2 evidence-based intervention under ESSA- Developed new character cards for grades Pre-K–K
- Added six Scripted PBLs to the PBL library
- Introduced P2 for P.E. and Clubs
- Spiral Review Lessons were introduced for each grade band (Pre-K–K, 1–2, 3–5, 6–8, and 9–12) to replace Wild Card weeks and provide teachers with intentional opportunities to review specific character strength content with students
- Introduced P2 Character Strength Snapshot Survey
- Introduced the Secondary Implementation Flowchart with corresponding toolboxes that support a variety of implementation models at the secondary level
- Introduced P2 for Educators: 3 Slides to help support staff development
- Feedback Form was added (linked to every “Questions for the Class” slide throughout all slide decks) to allow opportunities for schools to provide feedback or ask questions specific to the lessons
- Dr. Justin D. Garwood’s study, “Change in Teacher-Student Relationship Quality During a Tier-One Character Education Intervention,” published in Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, found that students and teachers “experienced higher rates of closeness and lower rates of conflict” as a result of The Positivity Project, compared to a control group that didn’t use The Positivity Project.
Highlights from 2022–2023
Introduced August/September Calendar options- Introduced six additional “Wild Card Weeks” to allow opportunities for schools to make up missed strengths and OPMs
- Provided Academic Standards Curriculum Alignment
- Introduced P2 for Educators
- Introduced Tier 2 and Tier 3 resources
- Introduced P2 Assemblies
- Began embedding vocabulary support within Daily Lessons
- Added a quarterly option for the Middle School Elective
- P2 Daily Lessons available in Spanish
- Introduced Mindful Moment and linked to elementary and secondary slide decks
- Introduced the End-of-Year Activity Toolbox
- Literature circle activities are created for 6–12
- Dr. Justin D. Garwood’s study, “Character Education to Address Elementary Students’ Emotional and Behavioral Development: A Quasi-Experimental Study,” published in the International Journal of Education, found that fourth grade students exposed to the P2 curriculum experienced significantly greater reductions in both teacher-reported internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, as compared to students in control classrooms. Furthermore, teachers reported a relatively high level of fidelity of implementation.
Highlights from 2021–2022
Introduced P2 Resource Guide- Introduced Morning Announcement Scripts
- Introduced Weekly Strength Parent Letters
- Added semester option for the Middle School Elective
- Introduced scaffolded character strength definitions (Pre-K–2, 3–5, 6–12)
- Differentiated Character Cards – added additional scaffolded sets for Pre-K–2, 3–5, 6–8
- Introduced P2 Weekly Toolboxes linked to calendar
- Added OPM elements to P2 for Families
- P2 for Families available in Spanish
- Introduced School-wide Service Learning Opportunities
- Spirit Week is extensively updated
- Dr. Justin D. Garwood’s study, “Elementary and Middle School Students’ Sense of Relatedness Before and After Positivity Project Implementation,” published in the International Journal of Education, found that students in P2 Partner Schools reported significantly greater feelings of having quality relationships with others following program implementation.
Highlights from 2020–2021
Introduced P2 for Families- Added Virtual Activity Option to all Pre-K–12 slide decks
- Introduced Bitmoji Classroom slide decks
- Introduced Relationships courses for 6–12
- Comprehensive update of High School Elective
- Year-long Middle School Elective was created
- Introduced Spirit Week resources
Highlights from 2019–2020
- Extensive updates made to K–8 slide decks
- Added Pre-K Daily Lesson slide decks
- 9–12 grade band slide decks differentiated by grade level
- Introduced High School Elective
- Added High School Implementation Playbook
Highlights from 2018–2019
- Expanded the P2 Calendar to 31 weeks
- Added OPM slide decks
- Daily Lesson grade band slide decks further differentiated by grade level (K–8)
- Added High School grade band (9–12) Daily Lesson slide decks
- Introduced Project Based Learning Units
- Introduced the P2 Book List
- Differentiated Implementation Playbook for Elementary and Middle School
- Introduced P2 100 On-Demand Video Training
Highlights from 2017–2018
- Shifted from PowerPoint to Google Slides, which allowed us to make real time edits to presentations for lesson updates and quickly fix any broken links
- Differentiated the character strength slide decks by grade bands (K–2, 3–5, 6–8)
- Expanded the P2 Calendar to 26 weeks to include OPM Intro and OPM Outro
- Added OPM Intro and OPM Outro slide decks for each grade band
Highlights from 2016–2017
- Introduced 24 separate PowerPoint presentations (one for each character strength)
- Introduced first set of Character Cards intended to support teacher understanding of the character strengths
- Introduced P2 Implementation Playbook
Highlights from 2015–2016
- Morgan Road Elementary (a grades K–6 school in Liverpool, NY) became our very first pilot Partner School
- Introduced first P2 Calendar
- Development of a PowerPoint presentation to support school-wide instruction of 24 character strengths
Thank You, Partner Schools!
Everything we build is guided by your insights, feedback, and experiences. From simplifying materials for parents to creating new engagement strategies for students, your voice helps shape the future of The Positivity Project.
Here’s to another year of growing character, building relationships, and creating positive school culture together.
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Melissa Killingbeck
Melissa Killingbeck is the Curriculum Manager for The Positivity Project and ensures our resources are at their highest quality. Melissa earned her bachelor's degree and teaching certificate in elementary education and holds a Master's in Education with certification in K-12 administration. Before joining the P2 team, Melissa was a successful P2 Partner School principal in Flushing, Michigan, where she worked for 25 years as a teacher, instructional coach, and principal. After retiring from public education in 2019, Melissa relocated to northern Michigan with her husband Casey and their Silver Lab, Tank. When not knee-deep in P2 resources, Melissa can be found rockhounding along a lakeshore, enjoying a boat ride with Casey and Tank, or "downstate" visiting their two grown children.
