Grades 2–5
My Amazing Brain: True or False
Circle true or false for ten facts about how your brain grows when you learn, then fix two of the false ones.
SEL worksheet · Growth mindset
Mistakes That Made Something Great
Match six real inventions, from Play-Doh to penicillin, to the mistake or surprise that led to them.
- Grade level
- Grades 3–5
- 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:
- Draw a line from each invention to the mistake or surprise behind it.
- A glue came out too weak to stick for good, so it was used on notes.
- A spring fell off a shelf and kept
- It started as a putty for cleaning wallpaper.
- A candy bar melted in an engineer’s pocket near a radar machine.
- Mold grew on a dish of germs that was left out, and the germs near it died.
- A boy left a cup of soda with a stick in it outside on a cold night.
- A mistake I made that taught me something:
Teacher tip
Share one story in more detail, like how the chocolate chip cookie was a happy accident.
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.
- Let kids choose to share or keep their answers private. Both are fine.
Watch for
Praise for being “smart”. Try praising the effort or the strategy instead.
Talk about it
- What is something you couldn’t do last year that you can do now?
- 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 1–4
Stuck? Try a Strategy
Read six stuck moments and circle the learning strategy that helps most, like rereading or breaking a job into parts.
Grades 3–5
They Never Gave Up
Match six famous people, from Dr. Seuss to Wilma Rudolph, to the setback they kept going through.
Grades 3–5
Mistake Acronyms
Match FAIL, END and NO to the growth mindset words they stand for, then make your own acronyms for TRY, YET and GROW.
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