Executive functioning skills are the processes we use in our brain to accomplish daily tasks. It’s true that we use a variety of executive functioning skills when completing academic work, but the truth is that these skills are actually life skills. We use them all the time in daily chores and tasks, from planning a meal to tidying up a room and so much more.

Use this article as a guide to give some ideas for practicing executive functioning skills at home. This has become increasingly important while students are home from school, but truly it’s important all of the time. These are simple strategies educators can suggest to parents to help kids develop stronger skills for planning, organization, time management, attention, and more.

If you need more background on these skills and why they matter, read everything you need to know about executive functioning skills here.

To get started, read through each of the executive functioning skills and some strategies to try them out at home.

Planning

Planning is making a road map to help achieve a goal. Students might plan for a long-term assignment or plan how to tackle a challenging homework page. We also use planning lots of times in real life outside of school, such as planning what to make for dinner for the week.

Some strategies to strengthen planning skills at home include:

• Plan for a meal. Choose the meal you want to make, list out the ingredients, and review the steps before making it together. If you can, go ahead and make the meal together. The process of actually cooking a meal involves lots of skills from attention to follow the instructions to flexibility when something doesn’t go exactly as planned.
• Plan a trip. Discuss what your dream vacation would be. Practice planning by thinking about where you would go, what time of year might be best, what you would bring, and more. Of course, this activity can be just for fun or really to plan a family vacation. That’s up to you.
• List it out. Take one task, such as making a sandwich, and break it apart to all the small steps. Then, act it out following those steps. This can be a fun activity, because it’s easy to see how many small steps there are to every activity.
• Fill the calendar. Try to think of as many events and activities for the year as you can. List them out on a yearly calendar ahead of time.
• Make a daily checklist. Before starting the day, work together to come up with a daily checklist of tasks that need to get accomplished. After each task is accomplished, check it off!

Organization

Organization is developing and maintaining a system to stay neat and tidy. Learners might need organization skills to keep binders and supplies tidy. They also use organization when putting their ideas together before starting a project. Organization is also critical beyond school for keeping our homes neat and having systems in place to help us complete work efficiently.

Some strategies for organization at home include:

• Organize a room. Choose one room or area of the house and organize it together. Doing an organization project together makes it considerably more manageable for everyone involved. You can even listen to music while you clean to make it more fun.
• Sort and tidy. Choose something that could be sorted, such as a pile of clothes or a stack of books. Discuss how they can be sorted and work it out together.
• Cut and paste organize. Make learning about organization a fun activity with a simple cut-and-paste craft. Use this free “Organize the room” activity to get started. Simply cut out the items and paste them onto the picture of the room where they should go. Of course, you can do this by taking a picture of any room, cutting out items in a magazine, and pasting them on the picture!

Task Initiation

Task Initiation is the process of getting started on tasks right away. This includes overcoming procrastination and staying motivated, even when it’s something we don’t want to do.

Some strategies for working on task initiation at home include:

• Practice rocket ship 5-4-3-2-1. Discuss how starting, or initiating, a task is like a rocket ship blasting off. This is a strategy to help you get up and going, even when you’re not very motivated. Sit and count down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. At the end of the countdown shout, “Blastoff!” and hop up.
• Break down the task. Choose one daily task or chore that you need to accomplish. Break it down step-by-step. This can be a helpful strategy to “get going” when a task seems daunting or too long.
• Make a reward list. Come up with small rewards to give yourself after you finish a task. These can be really simple rewards, like time watching your favorite show, time outside, getting to play videogames, or anything else. Identifying these incentives ahead of time can help us stay motivated and ready to go.

Time Management

Time Management is using techniques and strategies to make effective use of time. This involves having an accurate understanding of time, ignoring distractions, and working well when we need to.

Some strategies for working on time management at home include:

• Estimate and compare the time. Take any task and estimate how long it might take to complete. Then, actually complete that task and compare the times.
• Beat the timer. Choose any task, such as folding laundry or putting away groceries. Estimate how long you think it will take you to complete. Then, set the timer and try to beat it.

Self-Control

Self-Control is the process of stopping and thinking before making a choice.

Some strategies for practicing self-control at home include:

• Practice coping strategies. It’s important to practice coping strategies when we are calm so we can use them when we are overwhelmed. Spend time practicing listening to calming music, exercising, coloring, and more.
• Practice positive self-talk. Self-talk can be a healthy strategy to keep us calm and collected. Come up with some positive phrases that can help keep your cool. You can even make positive self-talk a morning ritual to start the day in a positive way.
• Practice mindful breathing. One of the best ways to work on self-control is by practicing our breathing. Use these mindful breathing activities for kids and teens to get started.
• Play games. So many different games align themselves to work on self-control skills, from Freeze to Simon Says. Read more about games you can use to practice self-control.
• Discuss scenarios. Come up with problem-solving situations. For example, you might say, “You want to watch your favorite show, but your sibling is already in the room watching theirs. What can you do?” Think about the situation by discussing what the problem is, what your choices are, and how you might handle the situation. Use these free scenario cards to get started.

Attention

Attention is being able to focus on a person or activity for a period of time. It also involves being able to shift focus and ignore distractions.

Some strategies for working on attention skills at home include:

• Hold a conversation. Choose any topic to discuss, free of distractions for a period of time. Use these free printable conversation starters to get started.
• Make a distraction list. Make a list of your biggest distractors. Then, come up with strategies to reduce or avoid them.
• Work focused. Use a timer to set a period of time (such as 10 minutes) and do chores or other activities during that time. Try to stay focused and not get distracted while the timer is running.
• Take a brain break. Practice spending time doing something calming, like deep breathing or mindful coloring to give yourself a break.

Metacognition

Metacognition is thinking about your thinking. Using metacognition skills helps us consider what we know about a topic before we learn, check in with ourselves while we’re learning, and reflect to grow our skills.

Some strategies for working on metacognition skills at home include:

• Talk, read, discuss. Choose a book (non-fiction books are the best for this). Talk about the topic and list off things you know about it. For example, if you are reading a book on airplanes, list off everything you know about airplanes. Then, read. Afterward, discuss what you’ve learned. Note that this same process can be done for any non-fiction videos, too!
• Circle share. Choose any topic. Starting with one person, list off one thing you know. For example, if your topic is plants, you might list off that you know plants start as a seed. Then, go to the next person and have them list off something they know. Continue this for as long as you can to help create shared knowledge on a topic.

Flexibility

Flexibility is being able to deal with change effectively. It includes being able to “go with the flow” and change our approach when we need to.

Some strategies for strengthening flexibility skills at home include:

• Change the ending. After reading a book or watching a movie, try to come up with an alternate ending or a different way the characters could have solved the problem.

Perseverance

Perseverance is working through to complete a goal despite challenges that pop up along the way.

Some strategies for working on perseverance at home include:

• Develop a goal. List off a goal you want to accomplish. Then, list the steps it will take you to get there. Post this somewhere as a reminder.
• Discuss problem-solving situations. Come up with “road blocks” and discuss what you might do. For example, you might say, “Imagine you are going to start a collage for an art project, but you can’t find the scissors. What can you do?”
• Start a daily reflection time. At the end of the day, talk about one thing you did well and one thing you could improve. This practice of reflection helps encourage perseverance and growth.

If you need more ideas for practicing executive functioning skills at home and beyond, you can give these executive functioning choice boards a try! They are filled with ideas, strategies, and activities to practice executive functioning skills that kid and teens need.

With the back to school season starting, I’ve teamed up with some amazing teacher authors! Together, we are giving away Amazon and Teachers Pay Teachers gift cards worth a total of $1000! I know this time of the year is a bit crazy, so I’m excited to help make a difference in the lives of some very lucky educators with this special giveaway! You can enter to win below. Good luck!

Giveaway Details:

• Prizes: 2 $250 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Cards, 3 $100 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Cards, and 2 $100 Amazon Gift Cards
• Rules: Use the Rafflecopter form to enter. The giveaway starts on 8/12 and ends on 8/16 at midnight (the night of the 15th).

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Kids and young adults need to be able to problem-solve on their own. Every day, kids are faced with a huge number of social situations and challenges. Whether they are just having a conversation with a peer, working with a group on a project, or dealing with an ethical dilemma, kids must use their social skills and knowledge to help them navigate tough situations. Ideally, we want kids to make positive choices entirely on their own. Of course, we know that kids don’t start off that way. They need to learn how to collaborate, communicate, cooperate, negotiate, and self-advocate.

Social problem solving skills are critical skills to learn for kids with autism, ADHD, and other social challenges. Of course, all kids and young adults benefit from these skills. They fit perfectly into a morning meeting discussion or advisory periods for older kids. Not only are these skills that kids will use in your classroom, but throughout their entire lives. They are well worth the time to teach!

Here are 5 steps to help kids learn social problem solving skills:

1. Teach kids to communicate their feelings. Being able to openly and respectfully share emotions is a foundational element to social problem solving. Teaching I statements can be a simple and effective way to kids to share their feelings. With an I statement, kids will state, “I feel ______ when _____.” The whole idea is that this type of statement allows someone to share how their feeling without targeting or blaming anyone else. Helping kids to communicate their emotions can solve many social problems from the start and encourages positive self-expression.

2. Discuss and model empathy. In order for kids to really grasp problem-solving, they need to learn how to think about the feelings of others. Literature is a great way teach and practice empathy! Talk about the feelings of characters within texts you are reading, really highlighting how they might feel in situations and why. Ask questions like, “How might they feel? Why do you think they felt that way? Would you feel the same in that situation? Why or why not?” to help teach emerging empathy skills. You can also make up your own situations and have kids share responses, too.

3. Model problem-solving skills. When a problem arises, discuss it and share some solutions how you might go forward to fix it. For example, you might say, “I was really expecting to give the class this math assignment today but I just found out we have an assembly. This wasn’t in my plans. I could try to give part of it now or I could hold off and give the assignment tomorrow instead. It’s not perfect, but I think I’ll wait that way we can go at the pace we need to.” This type of think-aloud models the type of thinking that kids should be using when a problem comes up.

4. Use social scenarios to practice. Give a scenario and have kids consider how that person might feel in that situation. Discuss options for what that person might do to solve the problem, possible consequences for their choices, and what the best decision might be. Kids can consider themselves social detectives by using the clues and what they know about social rules to help them figure out the solution. These are especially fun in small groups to have kids discuss collaboratively. Use these free social problem solving cards to start your kids off practicing!

5. Allow kids to figure it out. Don’t come to the rescue when a child or young adult has a problem. As long as it’s not a serious issue, give them time to think about it and use their problem-solving skills on their own. Of course, it’s much easier to have an adult solve all the problems but that doesn’t teach the necessary skills. When a child comes to you asking for your help with a social problem, encourage them to think about it for five minutes before coming back to you. By that point, they might have already figured out possible solutions and ideas and might not even need you anymore.

If you are interested in helping your kids learn social problem solving skills right away, consider trying out these Social Problem Solving Task Cards. They highlight real social scenarios and situations that kids can discuss. The scenarios include a variety of locations, such as in classrooms, with family, with friends, at recess, and at lunch. This set is targeted for elementary-age learners.

Of course, older kids need social problem solving skills, too! If you work with older kids, you will love these Social Problem Solving Task Cards for Middle and High School Kids. These situations target age-appropriate issues that come up in classes, with friends, with family, in the hallway, in the cafeteria, and with online and texting.

Remember that teaching social problem skills does take a little bit of planning and effort, but it will be well worth the time! Kids will use these skills to help them make social decisions in their everyday lives now and in the future!

 

 

Escape room activities are a fun and interactive way to work on the skills kids need. My favorite part about escape room activities is that they really encourage cooperation and critical thinking skills. Kids work together and use their collective brain power to solve a variety of puzzles and challenges. When an escape room is set up well, the educator can really just sit back and let the students do all the work!

If you want to skip these steps and get started with escape room challenges already created for you, consider this Escape Room Bundle for Social Emotional Learning filled with escape room challenges for critical social emotional skills. It includes over five separate escape room activities that cover skills such as conflict resolution, executive functioning, managing emotions, coping skills, and more. Note that anyone can use it! It would be perfect for resource rooms and advisory groups, too.

Here are seven easy steps for how to use escape room challenges with your learners:

1. Plan what skills you want kids to learn or practice. Kids can practice any skill when solving an escape room activity. Kids can work on math, reading, science, history, or any other topic. My favorites are learning to manage emotions and developing executive functioning skills. Really, the topic and skills are entirely up to you and the needs of your learners.

2. Plan and set up the challenges. Create puzzles and interactive challenges that align with the skills you want to teach. If you want kids to practice their reading skills, include a reading passage with questions to answer. If you want your learners building on their skills with fractions, add puzzles that ask students to match equivalent fractions or solve calculations. The options are endless! Once students solve each challenge, it should give them a special key, code, or lead them to a special destination in the room. Of course, the easiest option is to use escape room challenges that have already been created for you. Just print, sort the challenges into envelopes, hide around the room, and you are ready to go.

3. Hide the challenges in designated locations. This step is optional but adds a huge element of excitement to your escape rooms. Creating a scavenger hunt style escape room is especially fun for small groups. Kids absolutely love feeling like detectives and forget they are in a classroom! Just give a clue that asks students to look in the history book or encourages kids to check underneath a chair. This can be a bit harder for larger groups or whole classes, but can be done!

4. Set the stage. Give kids a fun (and maybe silly) reason for the challenge. Whether aliens are taking over or a zoo got loose, kids need a reason to work together and escape the room. Giving a great introduction can help kids really get into the escape room to start.

5. Add supports and accommodations. Incorporate “Clue Cards” to help groups who may need extra support or guidance along the way. Students can use these cards as a simple way to get extra help when they are stuck. Best of all, you can choose how many to give to each group or just pass one out when you see kids are in a bind. I also like to give students a worksheet that helps them keep track of their clues and key words as they solve the challenges.

6. Start the timer. The best escape room challenges are timed to help kids feel like they need to solve before the timer is up. This really motivates kids and young adults to work together since they have a deadline for their challenge. You can choose the time, depending on your learners and the activities given. For your first time, it’s best to give longer than you think the kids will need since you ultimately want them to succeed and escape the room in time.

7. Encourage teamwork. Take a step back and let students know they are in charge. Let them read each challenge and use the resources around them to figure out how to solve. Try to avoid giving too much help, unless your students are really stuck. The magic of escape rooms happen when kids work together and finally figure things out on their own!

If you aren’t sure how your students will do with escape room challenges, try this Free Executive Functioning Escape Room Activity. It is one activity that allows students to work on their working memory and attention skills to decode a special message. This can help you gauge how your students will do with other escape room activities.

If you’re curious, give it a try and see how your students do! You will be amazed at how well your students work together to escape the room and beat the challenge! Be sure to read up on 10 reasons why you should be using escape room activities with kids and young adults!

Escape rooms are not only the latest craze, but a tool that can help kids work towards their learning goals. An escape room is a challenge that allows kids to work together solving a variety of puzzles in order to “break out” of a room. There are different “reasons” for why kids are locked it. Sometimes, zombies have taken over while other times, the teacher have shut the school down. After each puzzle is solved, they will get a clue that leads them to a new location. Each new location includes a keyword to win or “escape” the room and a new puzzle.

Here are ten reasons why you should be using escape room challenges with your learners:

1. Kids use teamwork skills. Kids work together to accomplish a common goal. Because there is limited adult interaction during an escape room challenge, kids are left to figure out how best to use each other their own skills to work as a team.

2. It helps to encourage critical thinking skills. Directions are given, but kids are on their own to figure out a variety of puzzles and challenges. Kids have to use their critical thinking skills to think outside the box and solve problems to get to the next round.

3. They are interactive. Each puzzle and challenge is different, interactive, and fun. Kids have to figure out secret codes, put puzzles together, and more. It’s really anything but boring.

4. They involve some fun role-play and imagination. In some escape rooms, kids pretend the school has been taken over by aliens or that the teachers have revolted. It’s a little bit silly but a lot of fun. The older kids gets, the more we veer away from the world of make-believe. It’s a great experience once in a while to pretend.

5. Kids work on actual skills. You can incorporate topics and curriculum right into the actual puzzles and challenges. For example, if you are learning about organization, one “puzzle” might include the steps of organizing your binder. When kids put those together, they find a “code” or “phrase” that brings them to the next level. Kids can work on many skills, from conflict resolution to executive functioning skills and more. It becomes a meaningful and memorable experience for kids while they are learning the skills they need.

6. The kids become the leaders. In a well-designed escape room activity, kids are the ones doing all the work. They are completely in charge. How often does that really happen in a classroom? They become the leaders instead of relying on an adult to help them when things get tough.

7. They build perseverance. Ultimately, it is up to the kids to figure out every single challenge. The teacher can choose to provide “Clue Cards” to help kids with their questions along the way, or encourage kids to figure things out entirely on their own. Sometimes that means they have to keep trying at a puzzle until they get the right answer.

8. They encourage time management skills. In an escape room challenge, you choose how long students have to complete the entire activity. That means kids have to use use their time well with each challenge to finish before the timer goes off.

9. You don’t need any special supplies. All you need are some challenges and puzzles put together that lead to more challenges along the way. While you’re welcome to include a locked box or invisible ink, you really don’t need any fancy supplies to put together you own challenges.

10. Accommodations can be made so that all students can participate. Whether you include “Clue Cards” to give away hints for some groups or a tracking sheet to help kids remember their clues along the way, there are simple adaptations that can be made to ensure that all students have fun while learning in an escape room challenge.

You can go ahead and make your own escape room challenges or find sets already put together. It might be helpful for you to read about how to set up your own escape room challenges. If you are curious about trying some Escape Room activities that are already put together, be sure to check out the following:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Give kids an escape room challenge for a memorable experience they won’t forget. Whatever you choose, you know you’ll have fun learning!

 

 

Art is such a powerful tool to help shape the minds of kids and young adults. Simply put, there are many benefits to using art as a way to teach new skills. Art is often non-threatening to kids and young adults. It is seen as a fun and hands-on activity, rather than hard work. Because it is not perceived as a challenge, art activities can often draw in kids and young adults who may be resistant to other types of teaching strategies. Art also helps build confidence, encourages empathy and acceptance of differences, allows for free expression, encourages creativity, and builds problem-solving skills.

The good news is that you can and should incorporate critical learning into art activities! You do not need to be an art teacher or even consider yourself an artist at all to incorporate some of these ideas into your work with kids and young adults. If you want to just get started right away, consider checking out these Art Activities for Social Emotional Learning with ready-to-teach lessons and activities to help build self-awareness, increase confidence, strengthen relationships, manage emotions, build collaboration, and improve problem-solving skills.

Here are some ways to teach social emotional skills using art:

Have students make a collage about themselves. Use old magazines and newspapers to have students find and cut out elements of who they are. Kids can use a variety of words, pictures, or their own drawing to highlight who they are. This can be a great activity for students to get to know each other while building confidence in themselves.

Make a Selfie Portrait. Have students print their favorite selfie of themselves. Around the selfie, have students make up hashtags of their best qualities to illustrate who they are. Some hashtags might include #hardworking, #intelligent, or #kind. This is a fun activity to help students build more confidence in themselves and develop self-love.

Explore emotions with different colors. Discuss different emotions including sadness, anger, worry, and happiness. Have students find and paint with colors that go along with each emotion. For an extension, kids can even color with different shades of each emotion. For example, feeling irritated might be a light orange shade while feeling enraged might be a dark red. Using colors to explore emotions in this way makes it concrete for kids and young adults to discuss and identify feelings.

Incorporate crafts. Just the act of working on crafts can allow for the development of many skills including planning, patience, following directions, fine motor skills, problem-solving, focus, and perseverance. Best of all, you can align almost content area topic with a craft to go along with it, whether you are studying ancient history or three dimensional shapes in math. Kids will also remember that topic better when you add a craft to your planning. In the image below, students examine, discuss, and learn how to reduce negative thoughts with a “Worry Catcher”.

Give new opportunities with different materials. Art is an ideal way to teach kids to step outside their comfort zones. Many students might be comfortable with markers and colored pencils already. Instead, have students make images with finger paints or chalk pastels. You really can have them make anything you (or they) want. Afterwards, have students discuss what it was like to try something new. Relate this back to their own lives.

Teach art as a coping strategy. Many kids and young adults need positive outlets to manage their emotions. Art can be the ideal tool to help students calm themselves when they are stressed. Mindful coloring can be a simple and easy way to teach this. You can find kids or adults coloring books at any store for fairly cheap. Let students choose a page on their own and spend time coloring quietly while letting their minds rest. Discuss how students feel before, during, and after coloring to help them recognize that they feel calmer after taking time to themselves.

If you love these ideas and want to get started right away, consider these Art Activities for Social Emotional Learning. They include ready-to-teach lessons and activities to help build self-awareness, increase confidence, strengthen relationships, manage emotions, build collaboration, and improve problem-solving skills.

 

 

This February 7th and 8th will mark TpT’s 2-Day Sale! Using the code LoveTpT, you’ll be able to save up to 28% on all resources. All resources in my store will be on sale. This even includes bundles, which gives a huge savings on top of already discounted resources. To celebrate, I’m giving away a $10 TpT gift card. Scroll down to enter to win the gift card below.

Here are just a few of the hottest bundles you may wish to snag!

#1 Executive Functioning MEGA Bundle

These resources make targeting executive functioning and study skills easy. These are the skills necessary for academic success at the middle and high school level. The bundle includes over 300 pages full of lessons, templates, and workbook pages to teach study strategies and ways to improve executive functioning skills. The materials can be supports for resource room, guided study halls, or even a full curriculum for advisory periods.

 

#2 Guidance and Counseling MEGA Bundle

This bundle is ideal for guidance counselors, school counselors, social workers, and school psychologists looking to get all of their materials in one place. It focuses on academic skills, executive functioning, study strategies, anger management skills, confidence building, perspective taking, developing goals, dealing with divorce, and encouraging kindness to others.

 

#3 Self-Confidence, Anxiety, and Positive Thinking Bundle

This is a bundle focused on helping students build self-confidence, increase positive thinking skills, and reduce anxiety and worrying. All kids could use ea boost in self-esteem and positive thinking! The materials are a blend of printable no-prep worksheets, activities, lessons, and task cards. This bundle would be valuable to social workers, guidance/school counselors, special education teachers, school psychologists, and even regular education teachers aiming to help kids build their self-esteem and positive thinking skills.

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