What’s New at P2: Curriculum Updates

On February 18, 2015—what would have been Dr. Chris Peterson’s 65th birthday—we launched a Facebook page to honor his legacy by sharing stories and insights about positive psychology’s 24 character strengths and the importance of positive relationships. That moment marked the beginning of The Positivity Project.

Since then, we’ve grown from a simple Facebook page into a nationwide curriculum—continually evolving to help schools build stronger communities through character and relationships.

As we reflect on the last decade, we’re proud of how far we’ve come and excited about where we’re going. Here’s a look at how we’ve grown, evolved, and deepened our impact through character and the Other People Mindset.

Annual Updates

Every year, the curriculum team works three weeks ahead of the August calendar to check the weekly lessons and update content. All video links are checked again one week ahead of the calendar to minimize disruption from broken links. On average, two to three lessons per strength are changed during an update cycle. Whether or not a lesson is changed is up to the discretion of the Curriculum Developer, Curriculum Manager, or CEO, and is based on several factors, such as Partner School feedback, lesson strength, and content relevance.

In addition:

• When feedback is received that a particular lesson resonates well with students or is a teacher favorite, we leave the lesson in place for longer periods of time
• P2 weekly lessons are differentiated by grade level, so students are presented with new lesson content each year
• P2F2: Videos and quotes are updated within P2 for Families every year

2025–2026 Updates

These exciting new resources will be available to P2 Partner Schools on August 1st:

• 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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