Grow Your Brain! Exploring Growth Mindset for Elementary Students

Grow Your Brain! Exploring Growth Mindset for Elementary Students (Grades 1st-4th)
In this one time class, students will learn about what it means to have a Growth Mindset. Oftentimes, when topics or skills students are learning at school or at home are difficult, they develop a fixed or stuck mindset, saying things like "I can't do this. It's too hard. I will never be able to ride a bike or write a paragraph." The goal of this class is to help students flip the script in their brain and shift their mindset from "I can't do this" to "I don't know how to do this, yet, but I will keep trying." Students will also learn how to accept mistakes and grow from them. In this class, we will spend a few minutes getting to know one another before diving into the lesson. Then, I will introduce the concept of "growth mindset," activate some prior knowledge, and read the story "Bubble Gum Brain" by Julia Cook aloud to the class. Afterwards, we will talk about what the students learned as well as the difference between growth and fixed mindsets. As students are sharing, I will be creating a digital anchor chart based on student ideas that I will share with families in attendance. This is a discussion-based class, so students will have a lot of opportunity to interact with each other as well as with me. There are no materials or required prior knowledge necessary for this course.