"Mistakes are GOOD!" The first time I said that to a class of second graders, they looked at me like I was crazy. They were incredulous. "You mean you actually want us to make mistakes?" they asked in disbelief.
Free growth mindset lessons to help your students have a more positice frame of mind. All activities are engaging and quick to prep.
I love to start the year building classroom community with Peter H. Reynold’s books like The Dot and Ish. They are great read aloud books to begin a growth mindset activity. Both books are great for teaching kids that it is okay to take risks and make mistakes. Those books also go very well […]
How to use and set up the Growth Mindset Escape Room where students apply skills, solve puzzles, and have fun.
This zentangle growth mindset project is one of my favorite activities for the beginning of the school year!
These growth mindset picture books read alouds and activities for kids are perfect for upper elementary and are probably already on your bookshelf. Grab the free printables to use with any of these books and kick off your school year with growth mindset strategies.
This week at school our focus has been on growth mindsets. In Primary 1 and in Primary 6 we have been comparing fixed and growth mindsets. This is something we believe is a fundamental part o…
Ladies and Gentleman... we officially have the first week down in the books!! And what an AMAZING week it was!! #BestFirstWeekEver!! My kiddos are just awesome. We learned a lot and laughed a lot! My own children also had a great week (aside from a quick bout of a stomach bug that kept one home for a day!). My oldest, Drew, started 1st grade. My middle, Quinn, started Kindergarten. And my toddler twins, Addy and Chase, began two-mornings-a-week preschool. Additionally, Mr. Musings from the Middle School (my husband Dennis), started a new school year, too! Phew!! My head is spinning! Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great weekend and recovering from this busy time of year. This post is mainly a pictorial of some of the goings on in my classroom this week. As we settle into our routine, I'll be back with more "meaty" posts (and hopefully some new videos, too!). One of my favorite activities from the week was this Growth Mindset lesson that I adapted from here. Basically, the kids had to create the image on top using just a piece of paper and scissors. It was NOT easy... but that's exactly the point! As the kids worked, I wrote down some of the comments I heard. Things like, "this is impossible," and "I give up!" After I let them struggle for a while, I brought them back together and discussed the activity with them. It was eye-opening to see their words. They all agreed that their attitude was too negative so of course they would never have been successful. Then we read the Growth Mindset posters hanging in our room and discussed what each one meant. I closed with this video from Khan Academy. It was a fun and powerful lesson. One of the BEST purchases I made from TpT for this school year is the Icebreakers that Rock bundle from Cult of Pedagogy. This product contains three PowerPoint activities that allow students to talk to each other in an easy, comfortable way. What is great about these is that you can use them as one, big activity, or you can break them up, showing just a few slides here and there, as "brain breaks" through out the day. That is how I used them. So, on the first day, I did a big "Find Someone Who" activity with them. This allowed all the kids to learn each other's names. Next, I assigned them all their lockers and we practiced opening the combination locks (super-stressful for these first time locker users)! After that, we did a few slides from Icebreakers that Rock. Then, we went over the syllabus. Next, a few more Icebreakers that Rock slides. After that, I handed out and went over all the paperwork that had to go home and be signed (oh, the paperwork!!!). Then, a few more slides right before lunch. And then a few more right after lunch. Next up, a tour of the building. Then a few more slides before trying our lockers again. Finally, another slide right before dismissal. It was the perfect break/filler/attention-getter/distraction to use throughout the day... actually, I used the slides throughout the whole week! Run to TpT and pick this product up today! Totally worth every penny. (Some of the slides can be done silently. I LOVED these slides!!) Of course, we had to number our notebooks to get ready for ELA next week. I always tell kids that this is the easiest, most difficult task that we do all year :) I really the love smell of a Mr. Sketch anchor poster in the morning! This year, I'm starting with Reading Nonfiction: Notice and Note Stances, Signposts, and Strategies. My thinking is that it will really help with getting started with Article of the Week. Here is one of several of the posters I'll be using to teach these strategies. I'm jumping on the #ObserveMe bandwagon! Read more about it here. I'll keep you updated on how this goes throughout the year! Okay... that is enough for now! The beach is calling my name... nothing beats September here at the Jersey Shore! Hope the back-to-school season is treating you well! I'd love to hear how your school year is going so far. Happy Teaching!!
Learn about the importance of SEL and 11 essential ways that teachers can incorporate social-emotional learning activities into the classroom today.
Having a growth mindset bulletin board has many advantages for children and young people when it comes to building a good future. Moreover...
Blog Description Here
Read for ways to teach growth mindset and include it in your every day routine with read alouds, activities, projects, and more!
Spoiler Alert: There's a free Open House Activity in this blog post! It's a free growth mindset activity that aligns with the Open House project ideas I'm discussing today. Are you overwhelmed by Open House? I know I've spent many years in absolute panic about what projects and student work to put on display for children and their families during Open House and/or Parent Night events. That's why I'm always on the hunt for Open House activities that check all my Open House "boxes." In my quest for the perfect Open House project, I'm always looking for ideas that are... EDUCATIONAL - I don't like open house projects that are just "fillers." No crafts for the sake of doing crafts. I like open house projects that have some "meat" to them. I want them to showcase students' learning and their development as students, after all. VISUALLY APPEALING - While a lot of things might fulfill criteria #1, many aren't very interesting to look at. So, I like open house projects that have a bit of pizzazz to them. MEANINGFUL - This is important to me. I want the work that students are creating to have meaning to them. If the project can tie into a theme that is important to our classroom culture, then all the better. EASY - Now, I don't mean "easy" as in not challenging for students. I mean, easy in terms of being pretty straightforward to make and create. I was discussing my Open House dreams with my friend, Jenny, from Art with Jenny K. and she mentioned her super popular Growth Mindset collaborative posters. Have you seen them? They're incredible! They are two huge posters that students complete by working together. Each student completes a portion of the poster and then in the end they create an enormous and visually stunning poster that showcases 14 leaders and pioneers from history that had a growth mindset. Jenny's suggestion sparked an idea. It got me thinking, how could the collaborative posters be combined with a project that students could complete independently? And then, the Growth Mindset Research Project was born...and even better...it evolved into something that works great for Open House. The best part? You guessed it! It checks all my "Open House boxes!" Growth Mindset Research Project 1. IT'S EDUCATIONAL! - During the Growth Mindset Project students practice their reading comprehension skills while reading an informational text about growth mindset. This activity helps build background about growth mindset because during the research portion of the project they'll need to determine how each famous person demonstrated growth mindset in his/her life. Then, students select a person to research. Who do they research? A person from Jenny K.'s posters, of course! Once students have selected 1 of the 14 people to research, they practice those ever-important researching skills. What's cool about this project is that the research is framed with specific guided questions so that students aren't overwhelmed by the research process! It's manageable and meaningful research! Finally, students compile their research. Gotta love some nonfiction writing practice! This is when it gets really fun because students compile their research onto a super cool 3D Growth Mindset Projects...which brings me to #2 on my list! 2. IT'S VISUALLY APPEALING - OK, this matters especially during Open House. I've always liked projects that pop and boy do these 3D projects POP! Students cut out their research subject's image and add all their research onto the back of the project. Then, they stand them straight up by displaying them on a ring with the person's name and an important quote. When the classroom is filled with all the 3D famous faces, it's visually appealing and super fun! #3 - IT'S MEANINGFUL - One of the coolest parts about the project is the way that students are able to connect their research to the ideas of growth mindset. During the project, students need to determine how the famous person had a growth mindset. It's amazing to see students' interpretations. The act of discovering and recognizing the struggles that each famous person endured and overcame is incredibly meaningful for students. The message about growth mindset and the 14 famous role models around the classroom is incredibly profound! 4. IT'S EASY - Of course, the project itself is educational and pushes students to learn new skills, but putting together the 3D projects couldn't be more simple. And that's a major plus! There's something else that's really special about this Growth Mindset Open House Project...and that's how beautifully the research project and Art with Jenny K.'s collaborative posters work together. It's the coolest thing when students finish their projects and then receive their piece of the huge the Growth Mindset posters. Since they have no idea what they're making, their reactions of excitement and amazement are so special when the entire poster is assembled. And can we talk about the "wow" factor! This project has it in spades...parents are wowed by the amazing collaborative poster by Art with Jenny K. Then, they're awed by the 3D projects sitting on top of their children's desks. When they see that it's more than just the face, but filled with research, they're super impressed. And when they get the full circle connection with growth mindset, it's like an Open House home run! BUT WAIT...there's more! I've put together a Growth Mindset Open House Freebie that goes along perfectly with the poster and research project! FREE GROWTH MINDSET WORKSHEETS Here's how it works. First, there's a quick flyer about Growth Mindset that students will leave out on their desks. The flyer quickly explains Growth Mindset for parents. Then, there's two quick fill-in-the-blank writing prompts. One will be completed by a parent during Open House and the other will be completed by a student during Open House. On the writing prompts, parents and students will be writing about a time when they had a Growth Mindset. After parents and students are done writing, they can have a discussion about growth mindset together. The act of sharing in this way is incredibly meaningful for parents and students alike. Just as students were able to find inspiration from the people they researched, they'll be able to discover how Growth Mindset positively impacted their mom or dad's life! You can find this FREE Growth Mindset activity HERE. I hope it's helps you have the best Open House in history! To learn more about Art with Jenny K.'s Growth Mindset collaborative posters click here. You can check out the Growth Mindset research projects here. And...if you're looking for more ideas for helping students develop a growth mindset, check out these 9 ways to develop a growth mindset all year long! Thanks so much for stopping by, Mary Beth
Graduating 5th grade certainly is different from when I was little. Now, it means you are officially a middle schooler. One fifth grade class took the
Handy civil war worksheets for 3rd-6th graders. Print american history worksheets to learn about the Civil War for kids from 1861-1865.
Foster a growth mindset in your upper elementary and middle school students this year with these four FREE learning activities! They can be set up as stations around your upper elementary classroom! Topics include the brain, positive self-talk, dealing with mistakes, and accepting feedback.
Often when I see posts and activities about growth mindset, they usually include some amazing picture books. While I love picture books, novels are a huge
Read for ways to teach growth mindset and include it in your every day routine with read alouds, activities, projects, and more!
Blog Description Here
Are you interested in teaching your students about growth mindset and the benefits of making mistakes? Do you have students who meltdown in face of failure?
Top ways to encourage growth mindset in the classroom. Tips, tricks, and strategies for implementing growth mindset ideas and resources.
Differentiated math teaching ideas, including math word walls, math escape rooms, math pennants, math cheat sheets, consumer math, and math décor
As more and more research comes out about the power of Growth Mindset and more and more people are leaning towards this line of thinking (heck, even my District is getting on board...they talked about it at a training I went to over the summer!), I figured that this would be as good a time as any to teach my students about their own brains and mindset. So I began my first week of school with a few lessons that really set a great tone for my students. To begin, I wanted something tangible and hands-on for my students to experience. So I searched online and found this lesson here. In a nutshell, I folded some paper in a crazy figure (that didn't actually look all crazy...until I tried to make it...go to the blog for exact instructions) and told the students they needed to recreate it. I had them get into groups of 7-8 students, put the figure in the middle and gave them each the exact same piece of paper I used. There were only two rules: They could not touch the folded paper and they could not have a second piece of paper. Most of the students got right to it. As they were working, I walked around with a clipboard and wrote down everything that I was hearing in the groups. At the beginning, I heard things like: This is easy. Look, we just fold it this way and then that. Let me get my scissors and we can all just cut it. Hmmm....I wonder how she did that. Can you just show me what you are doing? Then, as time went on and recreating the folded paper wasn't as easy as they thought, the narrative started to change. I started to hear: Wait, what? This isn't going to work. I can't get this. What did you do? Seriously, she had to use tape. How did she get that part? Let's only do one paper at a time in case we make a mistake. This was also the time when I started to see some kids just sit back and watch. They stopped trying altogether and just let everyone else experiment. I also noticed some kids taking charge completely and not letting others have opinions. Then, towards the end, I heard: This is impossible. I give up. I just can't do this. What on earth did she do? She used magic. After about 10 minutes of working, I called them all together again (no one was able to fold it correctly), I showed the students what they said. It was a bit eye-opening for them to see that some just quit so early on or that they declared the task impossible. Clearly it wasn't, as I had just folded the paper. They just wanted me to tell them the answer. This then lead into a nice discussion about the basic principles of growth mindset. That you have to keep going and trying. That your brain was meant to learn. So I passed out a quiz that I got from Angela Watson of the Cornerstone for Teachers. (she has a whole Growth Mindset pack that is really useful) They took the quiz, which asks questions about whether students think they can learn and grow or if they were just born that way. Then, we watched a video that Angela links from the Khan Academy about the fact that our brains were born to learn. We wrote down many ideas from the video, the biggest being that failure = growing. That REALLY stuck with them. I then asked the students to write down all of the words they could think of that pertained to their idea of what it means that "you were born to learn." The more important words, in their opinion, were to be larger than the less important words. Effectively, they were making a free form word cloud. I then took their picture as if they were screwing in a lightbulb, glued it onto the word cloud they created, and using tissue paper, they formed a "lightbulb" above their hand. All in all, this was a fabulous way to introduce the idea of growth mindset to my students. This entire process took two days to complete, but it was well worth it. The students continue to make connections to that first video from Khan Academy and refer to the idea of "failure = growing" still. I am also finding that there is just a much more positive tone in class because of it. I can't wait to continue on with future lessons. Have you delved into growth mindset? What are your experiences?
These free growth mindset focus mats have been created to help you get your students to focus and reflect.
I love to start the year building classroom community with Peter H. Reynold’s books like The Dot and Ish. They are great read aloud books to begin a growth mindset activity. Both books are great for teaching kids that it is okay to take risks and make mistakes. Those books also go very well […]
Inspire students in upper elementary, middle, and high school to
This fun team-building activity helps students see the beauty in imperfection. It's great for a back-to-school icebreaker!
The few weeks between fall and winter break can be hard for student engagement. Use collaborative projects for review or enrichment.
This set includes 4 construction themed posters to remind your students to not quit just because the work is hard! These were made because of a discussion we are having while using the book Guided Math in Action by Dr. Nicki Newton. We must encourage our students to keep trying even after a failure. Posters Included: When you want to quit, stick with it Every mistake you make is progress I will persist until I succeed Mistakes are proof you are trying Thanks for looking! For more information on Guided Math, head to my blog and join the conversation! Kickin' It With Class
Free growth mindset lessons to help your students have a more positice frame of mind. All activities are engaging and quick to prep.
Help students differentiate between growth mindset statements and fixed mindset statements with this FREE learning center!
Then try these FREE ideas, resources, and tips to make them experts. Click here:
Are you sharing Beautiful Oops by Barney Saltzberg with your students? These growth mindset activities enhance the messages in this beautiful story.
Grab these states of matter worksheets to learn about solids, liquids, and gases with no-prep printables. Perfect science for kids!
S.T.E.M. and Growth Mindset concepts complement and reinforce each other perfectly, so teaching them together is a perfect match! Here's how I combine them.
Teaching respect in the classroom is easy with this read aloud list and ready to use character education ideas!
