Growth Mindset Activities: Free Morning Meeting Lesson Ideas
Are you ready to give your students the "power of yet" by teaching them about Growth Mindsets? I teach my students about growth mindsets during our morning meetings. It’s the perfect structure for discussing the concept of growth mindset and helping students develop the attitudes and skills of a growth-minded person! Read on to see my entire Growth Mindset Theme unit and be sure to subscribe to Tarheelstate Teacher to get your free Growth Mindset activities sent straight to your inbox!
I use a theme-based, literature-focused morning meeting that incorporates picture books, videos, student reflections, whole-group discussions, activities that inspire students to engage with the topic, and analysis of related quotations. I couldn’t be happier with how students respond to this morning meeting routine and with how I am able to target literacy standards with the variety of activities included in these morning meetings.
These Growth Mindset-themed activities and materials allow you to provide your students with morning meeting lessons that encourage social and emotional growth, character education, and community building at its best!
Best of all, you can use these bulletin boards, lesson ideas, and journal pages even if you don't incorporate them as strict morning meetings!
What's Included in the Free Growth Mindset resource?
a Growth Mindset Bulletin Board that includes related quotations, key vocabulary words (like growth mindset, fixed mindset, neuroplasticity, and more), and a shared goal component; this bulletin board gives you the language necessary for introducing growth mindset!
HELPFUL NOTES AND LESSON IDEAS FOR GETTING STARTED
A detailed teacher overview of the growth mindset theme offers you suggested read alouds, discussion questions, activities and extension ideas, and links to online videos and resources that will enhance your lessons. These plans have been a lifesaver for me. As I strive to implement good-quality, theme-based morning meetings, I have what I need at my fingertips, but now, most of the planning is done for me—especially if I don’t have much time to prepare before the week gets going!
Wondering how to get started with a literature-based morning meeting? I’ve included an outline for getting started and will share more information in the emails after sending your free growth mindset resources.
STUDENT JOURNAL PAGES & ACTIVITY SHEETS
Student journal cover pages for your growth mindset theme unit include the important vocabulary and related quotations. On the first or second day of a new morning meeting theme unit, students receive theme cover pages to glue into their journals.
Student self-assessments: It's important for students to complete a self-reflection at the launch of a new morning meeting theme. These questions focus students’ thinking on how they have used a growth mindset in the past, recalling when they have learned to do hard things, and whether or not their current beliefs are “growth-minded.” Students use their initial reflection to set a personal growth mindset goal and identify strategies that they could use to improve in that area.
Student journal pages align with the suggested activities and discussion prompts are included.
The 4-quadrant set of prompts help you initiate discussions about growth mindset. I use this discussion prompt journal page to allow students to jot down ideas before I begin the whole group discussion. This allows me to hold everyone accountable for thinking about the questions and it's a great way to ensure that each and every child could contribute something to the conversation. I often turn prompts from these journal pages into anchor charts that we can refer back to at anytime.
Additional activities to teach students about growth mindset concepts—like Growth Mindset vs Fixed Mindset comparisons and “Flip that Mindset.”
GROWTH MINDSET QUOTATIONS
Inspiring quotations are embedded throughout the growth mindset materials—in the bulletin board, journal cover pages, and in quotation response sheets where students reflect on what the quotation means. It is my hope that these quotations help students develop ways of thinking about growth mindset and mantras they can use to encourage themselves and others!
⚬ ⚬ ⚬ ⚬ In the Growth Mindset theme unit, you have everything you need, except the picture books! ⚬ ⚬ ⚬ ⚬
And it's all a gift to you that's just one email away!
THEMES TO GUIDE YOUR MORNING MEETINGS ALL YEAR LONG
If you’d like more social emotional theme units with a focus on encouraging students’ social, emotional, and academic success, you may be interested in the Morning Meeting Mega Bundle of 17 theme units. With units focused on kindness, compassion, growth mindset, gratitude, perseverance, responsibility, managing emotions, and so much more, your engaging morning meeting plans are done for you and your students will love them! You can save 10% on the Mega Bundle of all 17 themes with the code MM10.
