One of my favorite ways to start the school year, or even the new year, is by focusing on students’ having the power to choose. The Power to Choose which comes from the What Should Danny Do? and What Should Darla Do? books, teaches children that they can make choices that impact their day. It also teaches them the power they have to help others. Here are some fun ways to teach these ideas to your students at the beginning of the year.
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Start with the Power to Choose books
The What Should Danny and Darla Do books are a great place to start.
These books are really neat because they’re a choose your own adventure picture book. The twist is that the students can choose to make good choices or not so great choices. What they choose will effect the type of day the characters have. It’s really fun to read it once and then read it again making different choices. The phrase the power to choose is used in each book, and this is a great jumping off point to talk about what types of things the children get to choose each day.
Make an anchor chart of the types of things we can choose
After we’ve read one of the What Should Danny or Darla Do books, we made a list of things we get to choose. Kids start to realize that, while they don’t get to choose everything, they do make a lot of decisions each day that really impact how their day can go! It’s also a great way to start encouraging them to think about how they choose to treat others and react to others. Once the kids realize how many things they DO have control over, we start to think of real, actionable things we can choose to do this year.
Create a door display
Next, I have each student think of a choice they can make that will better our classroom or their own learning. Maybe they want to choose to work hard, help others, be a good friend, share their toys, be a good listener, or something else. Whatever they choose, I like to talk to them one on one about how they can actually make it happen. Once everyone has made their choice, I give them a paper cape template, and they write their choice on their cape and decorate it.
After they’ve made their cape, I have each student face away from me, stand like a super hero, and peek over their shoulder. I snap a picture, print it out, and then we glue their cape on their back. This makes such a fun door display or bulletin board. It’s also a great, year long reminder of our power to choose and the choices each student wants to make!
Positive affirmations with I have the power to choose
Lastly, I like to encourage the right mindset by starting our day each morning with positive affirmations. Some of our affirmations speak to the importance of loving ourselves, and some speak to our power to choose! At first, I say them and the students repeat, but after a couple weeks, we say them together loud and proud. It is such a great way to start the day.
You can download the free cape template and positive affirmations in my free resource library for email subscribers.
