Growth Mindset - Thinking Traps KS1 KS2

Eight unhelpful thinking patterns drawn as garden weeds for children to spot, name and replace with a sunshine thought - a growth mindset and mental wellbeing topic for KS1 and KS2.

The garden metaphor does the work: weeds are sneaky rather than frightening, and every one has a sunshine thought to plant in its place.

What children will explore

• Naming the pattern - eight thinking traps, each with its own weed character
• Spotting it in context - real scenarios, starting obvious and getting subtler
• Reframing - a sunshine thought for every weed, on cut-out cards
• Strategies that are theirs - building a personal weed-busting toolkit
• Noticing over time - a weekly tracker for the weeds they catch

The eight weeds

• Always-Never - you always fail and will never get it right
• Storm-Cloud - one small worry becomes something terrible
• Fortune-Teller - predicts the worst before anything happens
• Mind-Reader - decides what other people are thinking
• Blame-Me - takes the blame even when it is not fair
• Grey-Filter - hides the good and shows only the bad
• Should Vine - demands perfection every time
• Feelings-Are-Facts - treats a worried feeling as proof

What’s inside - 34 pages

• Eight illustrated weed cards with their sunshine thought answers
• Scenario pages that build from easy to subtle
• Weed or sunshine sorting mat with fourteen cut-out thought bubbles
• The Garden Path board game with a spinner, for two to four players
• Design your own weed for a worry the child has noticed
• Weed-busting toolkit page and a reusable weekly tracker
• Shrink the weed visual exercise and a sunshine garden celebration page
• Two-page adult guide with word-for-word scripts for every weed

Why teachers and parents love this pack

• Goes past naming feelings to recognising and reframing the thought itself
• The scripts give an adult exact words for a bedtime, playground or after-a-mistake conversation
• Game, cards, sorting mat and tracker mean it is used repeatedly, not filed
• Botanical watercolour illustrations throughout, in keeping with the garden

Instant PDF download, 34 pages. A4 and US Letter. Print on card for the weed cards and board game. Print as many copies as you need for your class or family.