Top Wish Listed Items

I am excited to be linking up with Diamond Moms Treasury for a link up of our most wish listed items! Check out some of my most wish listed items below and then head over to Diamond Moms Treasury to see some of the other wish listed in this linky.

1. Growth Mindset Posters {Bundle & Bonus}

These primary growth mindset posters are an excellent way to start discussions with students about how to have and/or develop a growth mindset! Great for class discussions and a way to make a positive impression on your students.

2. Calming Corner Feeling & Strategies

 We use a calming corner in our classroom to help students learn how to regulate their behaviour and their emotions. This has been an amazing tool to help students identify their emotions and refer to when needing strategies to help them calm down.

3. 75 Growth Mindset Posters {Printer Friendly Black & White Set}

These growth mindset posters are perfect for Junior, Intermediate or Senior classes. Great for inspiring class discussions on growth and providing an inspirational classroom environment. 

4. Kindergarten Start Up Bundle & Assessment Bonus {Ontario FDK}

This is quickly becoming my most popular product. Are you new to Kindergarten? This bundle might be perfect for you! There are lots of amazing resources to help you get your classroom started. It also includes a variety of assessment files for teachers in Ontario using The Kindergarten Program, 2016.

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75 Quotes to Encourage Growth Mindset

Are you looking for quotes to encouraging a growth mindset? Here is a collection of 75 that you can use!

1. Change your words. Change your mindset.
2. Get ready. Get set. Learn!
3. I cannot do this yet!
4. "Mindset {noun} a set of beliefs or ways of thinking that determines one's behavior, outlook and mental attitude.
5. The power of yet...
6. All things are difficult before they are easy. {Thomas Fuller}
7. You have to get in before you can win.
8. Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.
9. Once your mindset changes, everything on the outside will change along with it {Steve Maraboli}
10. Shoot for the stars!
11. We cannot control the wind, but... we can control the sail.
12. The expert in anything was one a beginner.
13. You have not failed unless you have quit trying. {Gordon B. Hinckley}
14. Mistakes make a difference!
15. "Courage is like a muscle. We strengthen it when we use it." {Ruth Gordon}
16. Sometimes what we call "failure" is really just that necessary struggle called learning.
17. Every mistake you make is progress.
18. May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears. {Nelson Mandela}
19. A comfort zone is a beautiful place but nothing ever grows there.
20. "It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop." {Confucius}
21. We learn from failure not from success.
22. "If at first you don't succeed... you're normal! {Kid President}
23. Mistakes help us learn.
24. I do not fail, I succeed in finding out what does not work.
25. Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. {Winston Churchill}
26. Be the change you want to see in the world!
27. "Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything." {George Bernard Shaw}
28. Believe in yourself!
29. Mindset is everything
30. A good attitude is contagious. Pass it on!
31. Mistakes are portals to discovery.
32. Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail. {Confucius}
33. The person who does the work is the only one who learns. {Harry Wong}
34. Just because you haven't found your talent, does not mean you don't have one. {Kermit the Frog}
35. Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. {Charles Swindoll}
36. If you quite once, it becomes a habit. Don't quit! {Michael Jordan}
37. There is no failing, only feedback.
38. There is no failing, only ways to improve.
39. Be so busing improving yourself that you have no time to criticize others. {Chetan Bhagat}
40. Learn to be a risk taker because there is more to gain.
41. Never give up.
42. Practice makes perfect.
43. Just don't quit.
44. Everything you don't know is something you can learn!
45. Never stop trying!

46. Believe in yourself!
47. I can keep going until I know it's my best work!
48. Failure is not the opposite of success. It's a part of it.
49. I'm not going to tell you it's going to be easy, I'm going to tell you it's going to be worth it.
50. I learn. What's your superpower?
51. Don't give up until you are proud.
52. Don't let a failure be an ending. Make it a beginning.
53. If "plan a" does not work remember there are still 25 more letters!
54. Be better than you were yesterday.
55. "Believe you can and you hare half way there." {Theodore Roosevelt}
56. The one who falls and gets up is much stronger than the one who never falls.
57. "Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think! {Albert Einstein}
58. "In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity!" {Albert Einstein}
59. Failure is not he opposite of success it is a part of it!
60. Mistakes are proof that you are trying.
61. Keep trying and never give up!
62. Celebrate every victory no matter how small. All progress counts.
63. FAIL: first attempt in learning
64. Hard work outperforms talent when talent fails to work hard.
65. Mistakes are beautiful
66. Strive for progress, not perfection.
67. Bring on the challenges!
68. I am always doing what I cannot do yet. In order to learn how to do it. {Vincent Van Gogh}
69. We only get stronger when it is difficult.
70. Stop being scared of what could go wrong and start looking for what could go right!
71. Choose the challenge, not the easy way.
72. I made an error so I'm going to try again!
73. Going fast does not mean you are smarter!
74. You are capable of so much more than you can even imagine.
75. It's not about being the best. It's about being better than you were yesterday.

If you are interested in displaying the following quotes in your class, click on the images below!

     

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Our Interactive Learning Pit: Developing a Growth Mindset

The concept of the Learning Pit is something that many elementary children find difficult to comprehend without simple visuals. The concept of the learning pit was developed by Carol Dweck, a world renowned researcher on motivation, and it supports growth mindset learning. (To learn a bit more about her research click here).

This visual need inspired us to use an interactive learning pit which students feel safe using in our class. It is small. We use it on a magnetic cookie sheet because it is can be easily reused by many students. It also allows students to manipulative the characters, who have quotes and emotions describing their feelings and thought process, so that we can have discussions about the learning process. 

We have even used real photos of the students so that they can place themselves onto the pit to help them understand where they are in the learning journey. They really get a kick out of it!

In order to introduce the pit, we acted out a puppet play with Cookie Monster and his friend Betty. Cookie Monster had 12 cookies and Betty had none. But she was extremely hungry. Cookie Monster had to "go through the pit" in order to learn how to share. 

The children picked the emotions that Cookie Monster had (frustrated, sad and happy) and also identified that Betty helped learn. He was not alone. This is the learning journey that the class agreed upon that Cookie Monster took in this situation:

This pretend scenario allowed the children to understand the learning pit in an age appropriate way. It helped them make connections to play situations when their own learning occurs. Because it is not personal, it allows them to process the journey in a fun and interactive way.

We then put the puppets and cookies out as a learning activity. It was busy all day as the children acted out new ways which Cookie Monster could learn to share his cookies with Betty. 

We have used two great Sesame Street video's to help them learn about Growth Mindset. They are really great for engaging young children!

Janelle Monae - Power of Yet

Bruno Mars: Don't Give Up

Every learning journey is different. We each experience different emotions throughout the pit process. Adults and children do not experience all of the emotions shown in the picture shown but I included them all just to show you the variety of emotions we talk about. With our Kindergarten aged students usually we find the students have two to four different emotions that they can easily identify. The children love showing off their learning journey so others can see.

Many children need to be explicitly taught how they can help others in their learning. For some, this comes naturally. We focus on four simple strategies  In order to help them understand this, we use the visuals below to help students learn that we learn from each other. Once we have come out of the learning pit, we can help pull others through and out of the pit.

"We can work together."

"Thank you for helping me."

"I can help you."

"Let me help you."

Other visuals with quotes we use to support learning:

"Good Learners go into the pit."

"I cannot do this... yet!"

I love how these simple and clear visuals help the non-readers and English Language Learners in our class. It helps them see that the strategies we use to learn do allow for us to learn from others! the simple wording helps them realize that they can help others in their own way. Even when "we" are not experts yet.

If you are interested in using the resource I use with my class, check this out:

In order to make this product small, I printed four of the .pdf pages (from the Extra Small file included) onto one page so that it would be easily used on our small cookie sheet. I then glued it onto shirt board for stability, added mac tac so that it would last and put a magnet on the back. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

What other resources do you use to help teach your students about the Learning Pit? 

I'd love to gather more ideas from you!

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Beginning Our Growth Mindset Journey in Kindergarten

Half of teaching kindergarten children about growth mindset is teaching it in a child centred way. The other half is educating parents so they can support their students growth.

In our class, we actually don't use the term growth mindset very often but we are learning about it in our own, age appropriate way.

We began to talk to our students about mistakes. We've reiterated that mistakes help us learn and we all make mistakes. So we are all learning! One of our most popular sayings in our classroom is, "Mistakes makes our brains grow!" We use many different phrases that mean the same thing message.

Most recently, we have been using primary friendly posters to guide our thinking:

In our class we support students by using an interactive learning pit! 

To read more about it by clicking here.

We use the following quotes to inspire students

Mistakes are beautiful.

They are needed in order to learn. Everyone learns when they make mistakes

I cannot do this... yet!

We've talked about how our mindset influences our thoughts. We can learn. We might not understand something now, but we will understand it eventually!

Believe in yourself!

Knowing that we can learn gives us a positive attitude. We can learn lots of things!

Simple, and child friendly. 

I was happily surprised when a small group of 6 girls gave our SERT (Special Education Resource Teacher) a tour of the classroom today. She sat down to play with the children and they decided to show of some of their reading skills around the room. They began by reading the "write the room" words they had posted around the room (this is a very popular activity in our classroom - see the link for where I get these activities from). Then they walked up to our new growth mindset posters. They read it to our SERT and then had a nice conversation with her letting her know what that meant. 

"Mistakes are beautiful!"

"Everybody learns and everyone makes mistakes. Even our teachers!"

"My mom makes mistakes. She is learning too!"

"I am learning when I don't understand something!"

"I am learning when I make mistakes!"

These are just a small sampling of their understanding, but extremely meaningful nonetheless. A very noteworthy moment in my teaching career, for sure!

Slowly but surely, they are coming up to me and my teaching partner throughout the day and acknowledging their struggles. It is getting more frequent that we hear, "This is hard! That means I am learning!"

Here are some other posters we have recently added and discussed with our students:

If you are interested in the posters that we use in our class click on the link below! There are many included in the bundle and we use them as a reference regularly throughout our day.

How do you share with your students the concepts of growth mindset? I would love to hear from you!

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