A Growth Mindset: Mistakes Are Okay!

When we first start our school year, our main focus is for the kids to get to know each other and to create a caring community where we feel safe to take risks and make mistakes. We have three rules: 1) Be Respectful (Kind) 2) Be Safe 3) Be Responsible.  Because Kindergarten is so new, many mistakes are made as we work on learning what these rules mean and look like in our classroom!  We spent a lot of time talking about having a growth mindset and when we make mistakes, or forget a rule, it is how we grow our brains!

Here is one example of encouraging a growth mindset. The kids rotated to each area of our room so that they could explore the materials available and get a feel for the types of explorations that will happen in those different areas. As with any "first times," there were problems!  Here is an example of one that happened during our first week!

I have a lot of "Loose Parts" in our building area such as pebbles, glass beads, pinecones, rocks, wood pieces, etc.  The first week of school, I have these all covered with red paper.  The kids are told that anything with red paper on is off limits. Somehow (and this happens once every year without fail) every single bag of glass beads that were sorted by color was dumped on the floor and mixed together, the two friends, sitting happily in the middle of their mess!  In the past I would have been frustrated, but I have changed my mindset!  Now I see this as a great learning opportunity!  I sat down calmly with my two friends and explained the problem. "Wow!  This is quite a pile you made!  It looks like you two made a mistake.  These were not to be played with because I haven't explained how to take care of these yet, but you played with them anyway. Now we have a big problem.  This is a big mess! What will you two need to do to solve this problem?"  They looked down at their mess and realization hit their faces! They were going to have to clean this mess up!  We talked about what a huge job this was going to be!  They ended up having to spend the whole next play period categorizing glass beads into groups!  The great thing is that as they worked together (with my help), we talked about how kindergarten is new and they made a mistake. We talked about teamwork and that if we work as a team, cleaning up will be easier.  We talked about mistakes and how everyone makes them. We talked about how mistakes help our brains grow and so they are actually learning experiences and not a bad thing.

The brain in this photo came from Kristen Smith's Growth Mindset Pack

I asked them what they had learned from this mistake and they told me they would never dump them all out again because it was too much work to clean up...and they never have!  My favorite part of this experience was that I asked them if we could share their mistake so that the others could learn from it.  They were happy to do this!  If they would have said no, I would have respected that! The reason they shared is that they did not feel judged for their mistake. They did not feel like they did anything "bad" or "wrong." They felt that our community was safe for them to do this.  I was so proud of them.  Our classroom is a place were we will look at mistakes as learning opportunities, not bad behavior.  I make sure they know when I make mistakes. I model how I will problem solve and learn when I make these mistakes.  In all honesty, I hope more of these mistakes happen as we grow together as a learning community.

The other thing helping us have a growth mindset is:  The Power of Yet

Our big word is "yet!" If we can't do something, we can't do it... YET!  Once they learn this word, everything and anything is possible! They feel free to try, even if they are not sure how. Here are some books that I used to help us learn this concept:

One book not pictured is "Ish" by Peter Reynolds!  It is a great book to help with growth mindset. Kristen Smith from "A Day in First Grade" has a Growth Mindset unit in her Teacher Pay Teacher store that gave me so many ideas.  If you are a teacher, check out her blog and her store!

Now that the children are aware of this, they understand that they may not be able to read or spell or draw certain things....YET.  They may not be able to make a sculpture or painting look exactly the way they want it to...YET.  They may not be able make a magnificent thing in our engineering area work correctly...YET.  They may not be able to count to 100...YET but they get closer each time! They realize this is okay!  They just have to keep trying and someday they will be successful!

Starting the Year Building Home/School Relationships

Purposefully developing relationships with parents is so very important to our classroom learning community.  I want parents to feel that they are part of our learning community and know that we are all a team doing everything we can to help their child reach their fullest potential: Parent/Teacher/Child.  I start out the year meeting parents during our Kindergarten Screening process.  I wanted parents to be able to create something special for their child while they were waiting so I put our this invitation for them.

I want parents to remember how they felt when offered this invitation!  Some may have been a little nervous to try, yet they rose to the challenge, even though it was hard. Many were amazed at what they were able to create using the wire as they had never used it before in this manner! Many were very proud of their accomplishment. Many got lost in their art because they were so focused! Also, they all had felt safe just trying their best!  Now, here is the connection I want my parents to make: This is exactly what happens when I put out an invitation in our room for their children.  These invitations invite their children freely explore or rise to the challenge! It helps them try something new, making them use important critical and creative thinking skills which are needed so much for their future success in school and beyond! As the year goes on, they will use writing skills as they learn them to document what they created or noticed.  If I could do this again, I would have a book about wire sculptures for them to use as a resource, as books will be included with the invitations in our room for them to develop reading skills and use as resources.  I hope this shows parents how their children will learn new things by visiting the different areas in our room!

After school started, the kids were invited to learn how to use liquid watercolors and Sharpie markers as they created self portraits.

We took their parent's wire sculptures, note, and their self portrait and put them together in our hallway to display how we view children!  Our image of the child.

When we had an open house, I had some more invitations set up for parents to take part in, again, to help create this important home-school connection!  One was some rocks and sharpies with the invitation to write their hopes and dreams for their children.

These will stay in our classroom for the children to visit in our Library Area which is also our quiet, calming area for when they need it.  Many times, if kids are sad, these rocks bring them some comfort from home.

Another invitation invited them to create a string of beads and add them to what we call our Peace Wreath.

It is a reminder of our peaceful community with each other and our efforts to create a peaceful atmosphere for their children. It was an opportunity for them to work with their child as a team to create something beautiful for our classroom.  It also serves as a reminder to kids that when we are in this room, we will create amazing things together.

At the end of the year, these beads will be joined with the ones created by families in past years which are part of a beautiful class chandelier, making them a part of this classroom in the years to come!

Home/School connections are very important to me!  I hope that parents will feel welcome and valued as we take this journey with their child!