The beginning of the school year is a great time to plan for goal setting with kids. Even though the routine of setting goals and reflecting on progress continues throughout the year, raising a group of goal getters begins on day one. (Or at least week one.) This is the time to establish a sense of wonder, nurture a curiosity for what-ifs, and teach what it means to have a growth mindset.
Kids are natural goal setters … they just might not know they are. The seeds of goals are planted anytime a child thinks:
- I really wish I could…
- Someday, I hope I can…
- Ooh, I really want to…
- It would be fun if I could make…
- Ugh, I’m frustrated that I can’t…
The challenge isn’t necessarily in having a goal. It’s in achieving the goal. So how do we move our kids from being goal-setters to goal-getters?
Seven Strategies for Goal Setting with Kids
1. Define and Connect
The best place to start is simply to talk about goals. Share a kid-friendly definition, such as: A goal is something you want to be, want to have, or want to do. It’s worth elaborating on this definition by adding something like: Goals happen when you make plans and put in the work.
Once children have a working definition of goals, you can help them make personal connections by building upon their past experiences. I set the stage by sharing some examples from my own life first. One way I do this is by bringing in tangible artifacts that I can show the kids as I reminisce. This might include a tennis trophy, a painting I finished, a tomato from my garden, or the skateboard I’m still learning how to ride. These stories never fail to spark their memories and soon I’m hearing tales of how they have learned to ride bikes, hold their breath under water, and hit baseballs before striking out. “Wow!” I say. “You already know so much about goals!”
Children’s literature is another good place to look for kid-friendly examples of goal setting. My personal favorites are Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall and Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman, but there are many others.
2. Start Small and Stick Together
For the quick win, think of small, fun goals kids can achieve in a short amount of time. Even better, make it a group goal. Small group goals accomplish a few different things. One, the accountability is collectively shared, prompting the kids to think like a team. Two, the synergistic nature of the goal will allow your kids who have natural tendencies toward coaching to lift up others who might be struggling. And three, group goals mean group celebrations!
One Example from My Classroom: At the beginning of the year, one of our shared goals is aimed at increasing our reading stamina. Incoming first graders have a pretty short attention span so I’m thrilled with even a few minutes of sustained time spent reading. On the first day of school, I challenge the kids to spend three minutes reading independently without becoming overly distracted or getting off-task. This may sound very short, but that’s part of the point. I want them to know what success feels like and I want them to want more.
The next day, I increase the goal by 30 seconds and I continue in this way until we’re up to five uninterrupted minutes by Friday. If we reach the five minute goal on Friday, we celebrate! If not, we begin a conversation about what’s making the goal difficult and we brainstorm possible solutions. However, in all my years of teaching, we’ve never not met the Five-by-Friday stamina goal. Thank you, kindergarten teachers.
My favorite book about working together toward a group goal is The Grasshopper and the Ants retold by Margaret Wise Brown. I use this story SO MANY times throughout the year.
3. Model Goal Writing
Goal setting with kids requires showing them how to write goals. I remember back in the day when I first learned about SMART goals in a PD workshop. Suddenly, we were expected to write SMART goals for everything. EVERYTHING. It’s true, SMART goals are smart. But I always thought, “Where’s the step where we ask ourselves if it worked or not?” I guess I wasn’t the only who wondered that because eventually I saw someone suggest an idea for SMART(ER) goals.😂
In a nutshell, goals should be:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Time-Bound
- Evaluated
- Rewarded
That’s a lot of criteria for kids who are at the beginning of the goal-writing journey, however I’m totally on board with the spirit of the acronym. I’ve simplified the process in our classroom. Instead, we ask:
- WHAT do I want to be able to do?
- WHEN do I want to accomplish it?
- HOW will I make that happen?
👆TEMPLATES HELP CHILDREN ORGANIZE IDEAS
4. Visualize the Victory
This is a pretty simple strategy when goal setting with kids, but it’s powerful. Similar to the idea of beginning with the end in mind, the intentional practice of imagining yourself reaching your goal can be very motivating. It’s also helpful to remember why the goal was set in the first place. Understanding the reason for the goal and being able to visualize achieving it go a long way toward keeping us from quitting.
One of my favorite children’s books related to this is Walk On! A Guide for Babies of All Ages by Marla Frazee. This story about a baby who is tired of sitting on his bottom all day long makes my kids laugh. Lying around all the time has become boring, so he sets his mind on learning how to walk.
TIP: If you don’t use this book for goal-setting, you can definitely use it during writing workshop later in the year. It’s a fun example of a how-to text.
5. Review and Reflect
Time spent reviewing goals and reflecting on the progress made is never wasted. Setting the goal is important. Making a plan for achieving the goal is also important. But at some point we need to check in and ask ourselves:
- “So, how’s it going?”
- “What’s working well?”
- “Is anything challenging?”
- “What kind of support is needed?”
- “Is it time to celebrate?”
👆STUDENT PROMPTS GUIDE REFLECTIVE THOUGHT
This also might be an opportunity for a reality check. Sometimes, children underestimate how hard it can be to reach a goal which can lead to frustration and the desire to give up. It’s best if this can be avoided through thoughtful coaching at the beginning, but even our best guidance won’t guarantee success.
If a child doesn’t meet a specific goal, take time to have a one-on-one coaching conference. Maybe the original goal was a bit lofty and could use a little revision or redirection. Sometimes it’s helpful to simply extend the timeline or create extra time in the child’s schedule for additional practice. Sometimes the details of the plan need to be reimagined … is a critical step or strategy missing? And sometimes (but children never like to hear this part) it’s possible their effort has been lackluster.
Good luck getting them to agree with that last one.😉
Since I anticipate children not meeting goals from time to time, I like to be proactive about this from the very beginning. If you haven’t seen Eric Drachman’s picture book A Frog Thing, I highly recommend checking it out. It’s about a frog named Frank who wants to fly, except frogs don’t fly. Inherently, this goal is obviously the opposite of attainable, but that doesn’t stop Frank from continuing to have this incredibly challenging, practically impossible dream. His parents keep encouraging him to find a frog thing to focus on, but Frank is passionate and undeterred. Fast forward past a lot of floppy, failed flying attempts to a chance encounter with a couple of birds who make Frank’s dream come true … sort of. In the end Frank learns to build upon his frog talents and leaves the flying to the birds.
The takeaway? Are the goals we’re setting for ourselves realistic and attainable? Maybe we’re expecting too much, too fast.🤷♀️
6. Celebrate Goal Getters!
Not only do children need a little encouragement along the way, but think about ways to celebrate the achievement of goals in a way that aligns with your teaching philosophy. There’s a lot to think about when you consider extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation. I think there’s a time and place for both and, even as an adult, I know I’m driven both intrinsically and extrinsically depending on the circumstances. For most kids, the reward will be in the accomplishment itself, but celebrations are always fun … especially whole-class celebrations for group goals.
A simple and sufficient way to recognize goal getters is with an announcement and a little note to mark the accomplishment. My kids love to collect these and keep them inside their student data folders.
7. Repeat
Goal setting with kids isn’t a one and done. It’s a way of work, a way of thinking. An age-appropriate way to manage a goal-driven, growth-mindset culture is to facilitate small, manageable goals across the year. A little goes a long way, so set up a system that feels doable for the duration of the school year. Remember, we’re planting seeds in K-2 classrooms. Your students’ ability to set, track, and evaluate more complex goals will grow as they do.
Goal Setting with Kids: My Booklist
When you’re planning your lessons for goal setting with kids, check out these books. There are so many great titles to choose from, but these are some of my favorites in addition to the ones shared above.
- Trying by Kobi Yamada
- The Thing Lou Couldn’t Do by Ashley Spires
- POP! The Invention of Bubble Gum by Meghan McCarthy
- The Wednesday Surprise by Eve Bunting
- Mr. George Baker by Amy Hest
- The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires
Facing Failure: The Elephant in the Room
I think as a society, we have a bad relationship with failure. I get it. Failure doesn’t feel good. But it’s an inevitable part of life. We can change how we interact with failure, even beginning to embrace the power it has to improve our experiences. Failure is an opportunity to see what didn’t work so we can figure out another way that might.
When kids don’t reach their goals, be ready to share stories about other people who failed repeatedly before finding their way. The stories of overcomers are very inspiring. Overcomers make the struggle relatable and remind us that we are not alone when we fall short. Some of my favorites to share are the amazing journeys of people like:
- Michael Jordan
- Walt Disney
- Ruby Bridges
- Malala Yousafzai
TIP: Find famous people your students are interested in and check out their personal and professional histories. I guarantee most of them will include examples of failure. I also know they’ll share stories of how they persevered through the frustration and disappointment to rise above all the naysayers, eventually being able to say, “I did it!”
A great children’s book to share about perseverance is After the Fall by Dan Santat. In this story, we see Humpty facing his fear as he pushes himself to climb back up that wall and we learn from the author that “Life begins when you get back up.” I have a FREE LESSON for teachers and parents that extends the lesson in the book. You can grab it 👉HERE.
If you have a favorite teaching tip or strategy you use when you’re goal setting with kids, let us know in the comments below. We’d love to know what’s happening in other classrooms!
Happy teaching, Goal Getters!
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Need some new ideas for the first day of school? Laura White from Love Grows Learning has several.
Try out some new back to school ideas from Zeba at Kindergarten Cafe.
If you’ve ever wondered what inquiry might look like in a primary classroom, check out these engaging inquiry activities from Kirstie at Innovative Global Teaching.
Also, if you’ve been wanting to start your own teaching blog, but aren’t quite sure how to start, check out this article: 7 Helpful Tips on How to Blog Like a Boss. The teaching world needs to know what you have to share!
