Helping students make better choices

Helping students to make good choices at school is often a slow and ongoing process. Some of our little learners find it very easy to see their day as a series of choices, and can quickly act in a positive way. Some of our other learners need a little more support, encouragement and practice. 

There are some easy ideas for exploring the idea of 'making good choices' with your class, including

• a simple discussion 
• role play scenarios that are relevant to your classroom characteristics
• create a chart that lists suggestions from your class - showing bad/good choices
• draw pictures that show a time when a student has made a good choice
• pause during class when you see a good choice being made, and highlight it
• read books that explore the theme

Ganit and Adir Levy gifted us a beautiful book they have written to help students understand the power of making good choices. I sat down with Sam earlier this week to read it and we both absolutely loved it. Our Sam is 7 years old and he was captivated by the concept of having the choice to help guide the story trajectory by making choices. 

The book has an interactive style to help open up and explore what happens when a choice is made. It is written in a choose your own adventure style and follows Danny, a Superhero-in-Training, through his day as he faces choices that kids face on a daily basis.

Sam being Sam, chose all the 'good choices' as we began to read the book. He was eager to read it again and again, and each time got more curious to see what would happen if a 'bad choice' was chosen. We have read the book 4 times so far and on each occasion had a different story, seeing how varied Danny's day unfolds as he navigates his power to make decisions. 

Sam also asked to take the book to bed for his bedtime quiet reading before he went to sleep and that is when I knew for absolute certain that this book is a keeper! It has the Sam-bedtime-seal-of-approval!

Find the book on Amazon using our affiliate link below. An affiliate link may provide a small commission to us and does nothing to change your experience. 

Over in our TpT store you can find some Super Awards that we created a while back for use in the classroom. They are flexible in that you can use them for a range of achievements, but What Should Danny Do reminded me that we need to remind our students every now and then that they we are proud of the better choices they are making. Hop over to TpT to find them!

Thank you Ganit and Adir for gifting us this book. We were instantly engaged with the interactive format. I know that the children I read it to over the years will love it as much and Sam and I did this week!