The Lesson One intervention includes engaging activities that give students the opportunity to practice important life skills. For example, one of the intervention’s activities uses a bubble game to teach children to practice their own self-control. This is one of many hands-on activities that have been designed according to research that supports David Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory (1999). Based heavily on the earlier works of Dewey (1938) and Piaget (1953), Kolb’s experiential learning is a learning style that focuses on allowing the student to learn by participating in a specific activity or action. Researchers have found that experiential learning is a powerful way for students to absorb, internalize, and retain knowledge (Dewey, 1938; Piaget, 1953; Mabie & Baker, 1996; Kolb, Boyatzis, & Mainemelis, 1999). This learning by doing approach is common among Lesson One activities. When engaging students in the Lesson One self-control activity, the teacher blows bubbles and asks the children to resist their temptations to pop the bubbles. By being active participants in this simple activity, students learn that they are capable of resisting spontaneous impulses.
When reviewing social emotional interventions one may discover a multitude of options, yet few curriculums are able to compare to the quality of Lesson One. Lesson One ensures intervention integrity by providing all of its teachers with consistent, on-site modeling and consultation. The intervention is easily adapted into all classroom lessons and is designed for use in grades pre-K to 12. This full-time, whole school exposure allows the curriculum to become integrated into the culture of the school. Students are consistently reminded of healthy actions and are afforded the opportunity to adopt the ABCs of Life into their natural daily behavior. By targeting both younger and older elementary aged children, Lesson One is reaching a population of students that are often overlooked, yet can absolutely benefit from social emotional instructional support.