Grades 1–5
Growth Mindset Challenge Board
Sixteen growth mindset challenges, from trying a new food to asking for feedback. Check them off and try for four in a row.
SEL worksheet · Growth mindset
Mistake Detectives
Be a mistake detective: read four short stories and write what went wrong, what each kid can learn and what to try next time.
- Grade level
- Grades 2–5
- Time
- About 25 minutes
- Topic
- Growth mindset
- Answer key
- Yes, page 2 of the PDF
- Kids practice
- Growth mindset, Perseverance, Positive self-talk, Learning from mistakes
What kids do
Printed on the sheet:
- Read each story. Write what went wrong, what the kid can learn and what to try next time.
- 1. Priya rushed through her math test and added when she should have subtracted.
- What went wrong:
- What they can learn:
- Next time they could:
- 2. Eli’s paper airplane nosedived every time he threw it.
- 3. Rosa forgot her lines in the class play.
- 4. Theo’s tomato plant dried up on the windowsill.
Teacher tip
Treat it like a mystery: what clue showed where things went wrong?
How to use it
- Share a mistake you made this week and what you learned from it.
- Add “yet” to the end of kids’ “I can’t” statements all week.
- Keep finished sheets in an SEL folder so kids can look back on their growth.
Watch for
Praise for being “smart”. Try praising the effort or the strategy instead.
Talk about it
- Why are mistakes part of learning?
- Have you ever been in a moment like this? What happened?
Take it further
Make a class “Power of Yet” bulletin board with kids’ goals.
US Letter, prints well in black and white. Free for home and classroom use: print as many copies as you need.
More growth mindset worksheets
Grades 2–5
Fixed or Growth Mindset?
Read ten thoughts and sort each into fixed mindset or growth mindset.
Grades 1–4
Change Your Words
Rewrite six stuck thoughts like “I can’t do this” into growth mindset words like “I can’t do this yet.”
Grades K–2
Look How I Have Grown
Draw something you could not do as a baby, something you can do now and something you will learn next.
Free for teachers
Get the free Classroom Drawing Kit
12 printable pages: six step-by-step lessons, a grid activity, draw-and-write sheets and teacher notes, sent with your welcome email. After that, new classroom printables by email.