Ten percent of kindergartners show behavior problems or disrupt their class. This number triples for at-risk children. And children with self-control problems rarely succeed academically. With all a teacher has to accomplish during the kindergarten year, having students who lack the skills to "do school" is a real challenge. Other students are also hampered by the frequent drama. But once teachers stop thinking of disruptive children as naughty and instead think of them as lacking social and emotional skills, they can see the situation as no more challenging than teaching the basics of reading and mathematics. Just as educators have identified key language and literacy skills--like phonological awareness--that underlie children's ability to learn to read, researchers have identified key social and emotional skills that underlie children's ability to succeed in school. And just as they've learned how to strengthen students' foundational skills in cognitive domains, teachers can help students build the interpersonal skills they need to move successfully through the school day. Teaching social and emotional skills--taking students from where they are to where they need to be--is similar to teaching skills in any domain. To become increasingly competent, children need to feel both capable of and excited about learning. They need a supportive environment, multiple activities, and sufficient practice to internalize skills like how to develop relationships and how to resist the urge to grab something they want. This article considers how teachers can help early elementary students develop four key skills: (1) building adult-child relationships; (2) belonging to a group; (3) regulating themselves; and (4) adapting "home" behaviors to fit classroom expectations. (Contains 2 endnotes.)