The Phoenix Five is a children's picture book about five Australian animal characters, each representing a different need. This course sits alongside the book and teaches you, the adult, how to use it: how to read it with intention, how to talk about needs in everyday moments, and how to build what we call Needs Literacy with the children in your care.
You'll move through the five needs one at a time, meet the character who carries each one, and practise the language that helps a child name what's going on underneath their behaviour. By the end, you'll have a shared vocabulary that works at home, at kindy, and at school.
There's a question every parent and educator runs into, often: what does this child need right now?
The answer, told in the Phoenix Five children's book, starts with a simple idea. Before a child can name a feeling, they need language for what's underneath it, a need. The Phoenix Five gives children that foundation, and gives you the words to use alongside them, at home, in the classroom, and everywhere in between.
“I absolutely love your ‘needs literacy’ approach, it's something I've been advocating forever. There is always a reason for difficult behaviour, and this book beautifully illustrates that truth.”
Start building a shared language for needs, at home, at kindy, and at school.
Sign me upNeeds Literacy gives you language for what's underneath a feeling, a foundation emotional literacy alone doesn't cover.
The same words at home, at kindy and at school - a shared language that ensure children and educators can communicate about their needs.
Real phrases for hard moments, ready to reach for before you've fully worked out what's going on.
Social-emotional grounding that goes deeper than compliance, the kind of readiness that lasts.
A non-diagnostic way of responding to big behaviour in real time, without needing to have it all figured out first.
Every need in this course belongs to the adults as much as the children, noticing your own Cups is part of the work.
The Phoenix Five is designed to be used the same way at home as it is at kindy or school, so it's for anyone who wants a shared language for needs with the children in their life.
"What if we didn't need to translate the framework for children at all? What if we built something that spoke to them directly?"
Sandi Phoenix, author of The Phoenix FiveWelcome to The Phoenix Five
FREE PREVIEWFinding your way around
FREE PREVIEWAcknowledgement of Country
FREE PREVIEWMeet the Author
Copyright & your agreement
FAQ
What is The Phoenix Five?
What do we mean by a need? Needs vs wants
Needs are human and universal
Building language before expecting articulation
Safety, Connection, Freedom, Mastery and Fun
What filling each Cup can look like
Moving beyond labels
What might this child need?
Avoiding assumptions
Questions to ask, and when to pause
What Needs Literacy is, and why it comes before emotional literacy
The five needs behind The Phoenix Five's five characters
Why assuming that 'behaviour is communication' is not the whole story
How to read, re-read, and talk about the book differently as a child grows
Bringing the story to life through puppets, play, and the wider Phoenix Five play kits
A working knowledge of the five needs and how to notice them in the moment
Language you can use immediately, with children and with yourself
A non-diagnostic way of responding to big behaviour, in real time
A habit of noticing needs, asking curious questions, and responding with warmth, as your everyday default
A shared vocabulary to use consistently across home, kindy, and school
A certificate of completion
Self-paced · 180 days access · Certificate on completion
Questions before you enrol? Contact us at [email protected] or call 1300 361 243
The Phoenix Five was written by Sandi Phoenix, Christopher Phoenix and Monica Millgate, and illustrated by Katherine Appleby. Published by Little Steps Publishing.
This course translates current psychological science into everyday, practice-ready language. Tap a heading to read more...
Self-Determination Theory describes three basic psychological needs, autonomy, competence and relatedness, that motivate behaviour across a life. The Phoenix Five's five needs sit in this same tradition: needs as the motivation
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78.
Affective neuroscience describes emotions as constructed by the brain from sensory information, context and prior experience.
Alongside emotional literacy, children need language to answer questions like how do you feel? and most importantly, what do you need? This is an active area of research, that Sandi Phoenix is interpreting and translating for education and care.
Barrett, L. F. (2017). How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Allostatic load is the physical wear and tear that accumulates when the body is forced to constantly adapt to chronic stress. An unmet need that persists becomes a physical allostatic deficit - an overdrawn body budget. When a child reaches allostatic overload, their response is intensely physical because their nervous system is launching an emergency survival response to protect its remaining resources: a meltdown, a shutdown, or a bolt for the door.
The Phoenix Five gives us a language to understand which needs are unmet, so we can support children to build skills to meet them.
McEwen, B. S. (1998). Protective and damaging effects of stress mediators. New England Journal of Medicine, 338(3), 171–179.
The guidance approach teaches social and emotional skills through relationship rather than through reward and punishment. This course sits inside that guidance tradition: curiosity in place of a sticker chart.
Porter, L. (2016). Young Children's Behaviour: Guidance Approaches for Early Childhood Educators (4th ed.). Allen & Unwin.
Gartrell, D. (2011). A Guidance Approach for the Encouraging Classroom (5th ed.). Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.
Kohn, A. (1993). Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes. Houghton Mifflin.
Ross Greene's collaborative problem-solving work reframes difficult behaviour as a skills gap, not a choice. Greene's own phrase for it: kids do well if they can.
Greene, R. W. (2014). Lost at School: Why Our Kids with Behavioral Challenges Are Falling Through the Cracks and How We Can Help Them (2nd Scribner trade pbk. ed.). Scribner.
The Phoenix Five continues Sandi Phoenix's published work around the Phoenix Cups® framework, translating needs-based practice for the ECEC sector, using an analogy about Cups. The Phoenix Five extends this work from adult practice into a story for children where each character personifies a need.
Phoenix, S. (2021). From behaviour “management” to fostering wellbeing, a way forward. Educating Young Children: Learning and Teaching in the Early Childhood Years, 27(2), 20–23. 'From Behaviour Management to Fostering Wellbeing'
This course speaks to both the early childhood and primary sectors. Standard wording below is quoted exactly as published by ACECQA and AITSL, unedited. Tap a heading to open it.
The educational program enhances each child's learning and development.
Educators facilitate and extend each child's learning and development.
Educators and co-ordinators take a planned and reflective approach to implementing the program for each child.
Respectful and equitable relationships are maintained with each child.
Each child is supported to build and maintain sensitive and responsive relationships.
Respectful relationships with families are developed and maintained and families are supported in their parenting role.
Collaborative partnerships enhance children's inclusion, learning and wellbeing.
Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students and how these may affect learning.
Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of research into how students learn and the implications for teaching.
Identify strategies to support inclusive student participation and engagement in classroom activities.
Demonstrate knowledge of practical approaches to manage challenging behaviour.
