If your students struggle when trying new things, try some growth mindset activities for kids. These ideas are a great way to help students gain confidence and feel inspired when trying something new for the first time.
Fun Growth Mindset Activities With The Dot
The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds is s great book to read to your class when you want to teach your students about having a growth mindset and get them excited about learning. Having a growth mindset is understanding that when you put in effort and hard work your persistence can pay off when learning new skills. The Dot teaches students that even when you think you can't do something, with a little hard work and some positive self-talk you can do anything!
In the story The Dot, a little girl named Vashti feels frustrated in art class and insists that she just can't draw. Her teacher encourages her to make a mark on the paper and this begins Vashti's journey into discovering that you can make beautiful art with just dots. She learns that the best way to get better at hard things is with a lot of practice. But it also teaches that you can do anything that you set your mind to doing.
Teaching The Importance Of A Growth Mindset
We started out by learning the difference between a fixed mindset statement and having a growth mindset. We read The Dot and discussed the character of Vashti. We made this anchor chart describing Vashti, the little girl in the story.
She starts out frustrated and angry because she thinks she can't draw and makes statements like “I just can't draw.” But with just a little effort and a change in attitude, she comes a long way in her artistic talent. At the beginning of the story, Vashti is bossy, mad, and frustrated but through the learning process her teacher shows her that she is actually very creative and talented.
Next, we made this Venn diagram comparing and contrasting Vashti at the beginning of the story and how she changed at the end. It was a great way to demonstrate to students how Vashti had changed. It gave us an opportunity to talk about how they thought Vashti had changed and what she did to have a better attitude about drawing. We also used the book as an opportunity to practice comprehension strategies like characters, setting, and plot.
Growth Mindset Poster
What is the sign of a growth mindset? We used these anchor charts to teach students the difference between a growth mindset vs. a fixed mindset. We discussed some ways that we might have a fixed mindset in our classroom like thinking we can't do something or not being willing to try new things.
These posters helped us talk about how we could change our attitude to a growth mindset by using simple words like “I can!” or “I will try!” I hung them on a bulletin board in our classroom so that the next time a student was feeling frustrated with an activity they could refer back to them.
Favorite Growth Mindset Activities With The Dot
The Dot activities for growth mindset lend themselves to some great opinion writing activities in first grade. For this activity, the students had to write their opinion of Vashti. Did they think she was bossy or nice? Did they like Vashti? Why did they feel that way? They used this simple writing template to give their opinion of the main character, Vashti.
The Dot Art Activities
Of course, we couldn't let the opportunity pass by without making some art of our own. We decided to make dot art using coffee filters. Each student was given three coffee filters and colored them with markers. I encouraged them to fill the entire coffee filter with lots of colors!
When the students finished coloring their filters, we laid them out on a large piece of paper in the hallway and sprayed them with water. This created a beautiful effect as the colors bled together on the coffee filters. When they were dry we hooked them together with paper clips and hung them in the hall to make beautiful dot mobiles. It was a fun way to end our unit on The Dot.
Circle Painting
Another great activity to go along with The Dot was this circle painting project. I put a very large piece of white butcher paper on the floor with various colors of bright paint in cups in the middle. I had 15 students, so there were enough cups for every child to have a color and a paintbrush. I asked the students the following questions: Do you think you are an artist? Do you think you can make art using only circles and dots? Then we set to work to create our masterpiece.
The task was for each student to paint either a circle or a dot on the paper. Next, I had each child move one spot over and took a different color, and painted another circle or dot. They just kept moving around the paper painting circles and dots.
The best part of this growth mindset activity was that we had no idea how our painting would turn out. There was no right or wrong. It was simply a fun activity for us to practice having a growth mindset knowing that however our painting turned out it would be great. It was an excellent way for the students to work together in a shared experience. The result was this absolutely gorgeous painting!
I was curious to know how the students felt about this project so we used this as an opportunity to do some more opinion writing. Part of having a growth mentality is letting go of the feeling that everything has to be perfect in order for it to be good. Young children are sometimes reluctant to try new things because they are afraid of the outcome. They worry that they won't be good enough.
This project showed the students that there is a better way and that letting go of those fixed mindsets can often result in new skills and new ideas. As you can imagine, when the students wrote their opinion of circle painting most of them loved it!
Continuing Our Growth Mindset Activities with Ish
Another great kids book written by Peter H Reynolds is Ish, the sequel to The Dot. The story of Ish is about a little boy named Ramon who discovers your drawings don't always have to be perfect and that sometimes they can look similar and that's enough. Ish is a great book to help struggling learners understand that learning is an ongoing process and that once in a while you will have a difficult task to do and you may not get it perfect right from the start. This can help kids have a positive attitude when they are trying new things that may be difficult.
We used a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the characters of Vashti and Ramon. They tried drawing a few items like a dog, bird, and flower and we reminded ourselves that they didn't have to be perfect. We didn't have to erase it to make it better. A flower could look “flower-ish” and that was perfectly fine.
Ten Black Dots Activities
We continued our study of dots with the story Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews. This is a counting book where the author makes art with black dots.
After reading the book I challenged the students to create their own artwork out of one black dot. The action plan seemed easy – what can you make with one black dot? You might think that younger kids would have difficulty coming up with good ideas but it was just the opposite! The students were simply given a sheet of white paper, one black construction paper dot, a black crayon, and glue. They had so many great ideas and their pictures turned out awesome!
International Dot Day
Have you heard of International Dot Day? This special day is celebrated on or about September 15th-ish every year and was established as a day to celebrate creativity. It's the perfect day to join in the fun and teach your students about having a growth mindset at the same time! If you want to learn more about International Dot Day head over here where you can read all about it!
Ready to inspire your students to have confidence to try new things? This unit has everything you need to help your students to have a growth mindset! Head over here to take a closer look at everything included.
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So fun!! These are wonderful ideas and I can tell your firsties enjoyed it!
Just about to embrace the first day back tomorrow (eek) and have a composite class so looking for something for the P2's (5/6 year olds) to do when the younger ones go home. And I LOVE THIS!! Particularly the black dot creative pictures and the giant paint project (if I am feeling brave!!). Thanks so much"