Start your year off having a GROWTH MINDSET! {Freebie}

growth mindset Featured Blog Image

Hi Friends… I hope this post finds you well.  I wanted to share an activity with you that I do during the first week of school.  I am a STICKLER when it comes to saying the words “I CAN’T!”

Those words are actually like hearing nails on a chalkboard for me…it drives me a bit bonkers.  So right from the get-go, we get RID of the words “I CAN’T” in our classroom and learn to change our thoughts and words around to be more positive and productive.  I spend the first week of school doing my typical and engaging Back to School activities and get-to-know-you games. But, I always find time to read the book My Fantastic Elastic Brain.

It has some tough vocabulary, but it makes for some great discussions.  We talk ALL about how our brains grow when we try new things and it even grows when we make mistakes….and mistakes are TERRIFIC things.. yep.. I always say that mistakes are terrific.  I stress how important it is to make mistakes because they always help us to learn and STRETCH our brains. The best way for us to STRETCH our brains is to have a Growth Mindset.  We talk about what that means and how we can learn to have a growth mindset.

I then share this adorable video on Growth Mindset…

Growth Mindset youtube video

I always give the actual definition of a Growth Mindset on our chart and we think of different things that we can say instead of “I Can’t.” We create a T-Chart of Fixed Mindset statements and create Growth Mindset statements from them.

After we have our initial discussion of what a Growth Mindset is, we create our Growth Mindset Flip Flap Book to be displayed along with our Growth Mindset bulletin board display.  It looks AWESOME in the hallway!

The students write what a Growth Mindset is, they reflect on a time that they had a Fixed Mindset and figure out a way to change that in the future to having a growth mindset, they will reflect on an area that they struggle with and create Growth Mindset Goals, and they also match up fixed mindset statements with growth mindset statements.

After completing these lessons and activities, my students start using their new found vocabulary on a day-to-day basis. They are like little sponges! I just love that.

After our inital lesson on growth mindset, I also share these two books with my students as well during the first week of school.

Don’t forget to DOWNLOAD your Growth Flip Flap Book FREEBIE, just complete the form above!

Thanks so much for stopping by! xoxo, Anna

Posted in

Keep Reading

Anna D.

6 thoughts on “Start your year off having a GROWTH MINDSET! {Freebie}”

  1. I absolutely love that you are teaching your kids to think healthy!! Wow! These kids are learning thinking patterns that most have not grasped as adults! You are making a huge impact on their lives!!
    – Tara

  2. Gabrielle Simala

    I can’t wait to try the book you suggested in this post, “Your Fantastic Elastic Brain”! Learning how to deal with challenges is an important life skill that will guide these children the rest of their lives.

  3. Yay!!!! Let me know how it goes in your classroom and how the kids enjoy it : ) I couldn’t agree more…. xoxo, Anna

  4. Sure thing. Just fill out the form at the top of the post and you can download it immediately. : ) I hope this helps!

Comments are closed.

anna-round-pic.png

I'm Anna DiGilio

Hi, I'm Anna! I was a primary teacher for over twenty-three years, wife of a firefighter, mother of twin teenage boys, obsessed with being creative and helping teachers and love my Saturday morning quiet cup of coffee!
Thanks for stopping by!

Freebies

how-to-launch-guided-math

Get The Freebie

streamline-your-guided-reading

Get The Freebie

growth-mindset

Get the Freebie

read-its-freebie

Get The Freebie

You've Got
Mail!

join-today

Anna in Your Inbox

Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team.