Teaching Kids the Power of their Choices

By: Becky Cummings

You are responsible for your own happiness.

No toy or other person will truly make you happy long term.

It’s a choice you have to make every day.

I feel like I say this to my kids every week! We can explain to kids all day long that they create their own happiness by the choices they make, but does it sink in? Not when we lecture them. Kids learn well by experience so as a parent I try to use situations as teachable moments to help my children become aware of how their choices impacted their day.

I wanted to give teachers a way to bring this idea to the classroom so I created an activity to simulate some real life situations kids face and give them the chance to think of different ways to respond. By acting out the scenario, they can consider the results of each response and become more conscious of their choices.

Teachers can arrange students into small group of 2-4 kids and give each group a scenario card. The group will think of 3 possible choices they could make based on the scenario. Using the graphic organizer students can draw or write out their choices. They can also have a chance to act them out in front of the class. The teacher will then lead an open discussion about the 3 choices made and record some of the ideas brought up in discussion about each choice.

There are 2 sets of 20 different scenario cards, one for the younger children and the other for upper elementary. The cards range from problems at home like, “You didn’t do your chores and you can’t have a playdate” to school issues such as, “An older kid in school starts calling you names.” This activity is available for free on my website. To get access to it please click here.