One of the life skills that we teach and regularly practice with our students is the ability to follow either written or verbal instructions. Sometimes following instructions exactly is incredibly crucial– like when you’re doing an intricate chemistry experiment or assembling a bed, and other times– like when you’re making a peanut butter sandwich or coloring a picture, precision isn’t quite as necessary. Regardless of precision needed, learning to follow instructions is an important skill for all students to learn.
To help your students practice this skill, I’ve created a set of four “Read and Do” worksheets. Three of the pages contain a picture and a set of instructions. Students read each instruction and complete the task. One page is a create your own “Read & Do” where students can write their own set of instructions, then trade with a classmate to have them follow the instructions.
These worksheets give students a fun way to practice following specific instructions, simply for the objective of practicing following instructions. They provide a low-risk opportunity to practice this skill, as precision isn’t crucial. This activity is recommended for grades 1-3, but early readers could also benefit from its use. If you are wanting to have your students practice following verbal instructions, you can simply read them out loud to your class.
These worksheets are free to download, and are for personal or classroom use only. Do not resell, repost, or claim as your own.
As teachers, we have the honor and privilege of helping our students develop critical thinking skills as well as other skills that will help prepare them for their futures. We can create meaningful and lasting impacts on our students by being intentional about what we teach. The 7 Cs of Education provide teachers with seven important areas to teach to help our students be good thinkers, good students, and good humans. We’ve covered six of the seven so far: Critical Thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, Communication, Computer Literacy, and Cross-Cultural Understanding. The final “C” is kind of a culmination of the previous six, and encompasses a lot of aspects of each previous “C”. The seventh and final “C” of education is Career and Life Skills.
So much of what we do and teach in the classroom can be classified as a career and/or life skill. Thinking critically, learning to collaborate, and learning to effectively communicate are all great skills for students to learn, as they are skills they will use as they become adults and enter the workforce. Becoming computer literate is also an essential skill to have in today’s digital world. While these skills are often easy to naturally integrate into our curriculum as we teach other information, others must be a bit more intentionally taught. Skills like how to write a resume, create a budget, and how to sew on a button typically aren’t seamlessly blended in with group projects or essays.
Learning life skills can be something new and fun for students. It’s out of the norm, and is a fun change of pace. It’s easy to see real world application of these kinds of skills, which makes them more motivating to learn. Below are some fun ways to incorporate life and career skills into our teaching:
Have students fill out a job application.
Students can learn and practice the basics of resume writing.
Let students design their “ideal” life– house, car, job, etc. Then have them research how much money their job would bring in, and have them calculate if it would be enough to support the lifestyle they want. Be sure they include the cost of utilities, cell phone, groceries, and any other “extras”. This is an eye opening activity, especially for high schoolers.
If you’re a sewing teacher, teach students the basics of sewing on a button, mending a tear, or hemming pants.
Have students do mock interviews– ask other teachers and school employees to come conduct the interviews.
Let students practice making a phone call to make an appointment. This is something that scares a lot of people, but is a great skill to practice!
Ensure students know how to properly address an envelope.
Help students plan and make simple meals or snacks.
Assign students some questions to ask to another classmate. No texting, no emailing. Just good old face to face communication. You’d be surprised at how difficult this is for some kids who are used to doing all communication through their devices.
Help students learn how to place an online order.
In science class, teach students what chemicals can and cannot go together– some chemicals are very toxic when mixed.
When students can see real life application for what they are learning, they become so much more invested in their education. It’s important that we help our students become the best learners they can be. To do this, we must expose them to a variety of subjects, skills, ideas, and processes. The 7 Cs of Education provide a great outline of skills to teach to our students– skills that will not only help them succeed in school, but in the “real world” as well.
Last week, I introduced the 7 Cs of education. Essentially, they are seven ways that students learn and process information that is taught to them. Since kids all learn in their own unique ways, each of these 7 Cs are equally important. Today we’ll start with the first on the list: Critical Thinking.
Thinking critically has many benefits, including increased problem solving ability, improved decision making, and increased curiosity. As students learn to be critical thinkers, they begin to think outside the box. This leads to more diverse, unique solutions and answers. Students start to think creatively as they expand their thinking beyond the obvious. They are able to analyze and evaluate a problem on a deeper level, which lends itself to making informed inferences, and eventually, unique solutions.
Critical thinking is a skill that is used long after students have completed formal education. Because of this, it’s important that students are taught how to think critically so that it becomes second nature. When they are faced with a problem or situation in adulthood, they will already have the tools they need to process possible solutions because of what they had been taught when they were younger. As adults, we know that problems will arise in the workplace, at home, and elsewhere. Knowing how to tackle problems and find solutions becomes an immeasurable skill as we encounter various situations.
There are many different ways that students can be taught to think critically. Allowing students to work in groups to solve problems can be a very effective way for students to combine their brain power to come up with creative, well thought out solutions. Activities like escape rooms, debates, role playing, case studies, scavenger hunts, and sequencing can encourage critical thinking.
As kids are given opportunities to think deeper, they begin to train their brains to look at problems and solutions through a different lens, and soon enough, critical thinking becomes second nature!
You finish teaching a lesson and give instructions for the assignment. As usual, you ask if anyone has any questions, and you are met with radio silence. But because you’re a teacher, you know better than to believe that everyone in the class knows exactly what to do. You’ve learned that there are always questions– sometimes it’s because a student is too shy to ask in front of the whole class, and sometimes (or maybe most often), it’s because a student was not listening. They might have heard you talking, but they weren’t really truly paying attention. Repeating instructions 32 times gets exhausting!
Students often think that hearing is the same thing as listening, when in reality, they are two different things. We hear a lot of things throughout our day. We hear people talking, noisy halls, bells ringing, music playing, and so on. But until we actively hear, we generally don’t truly register what our ears are taking in. Actively hearing – or listening – requires our minds to focus on what is being said or heard so that our brain can make sense of it and understand it. We make a conscious choice to take in the noises and turn it into something more concrete.
In our classrooms, we can implement different strategies to help our students learn to listen rather than just hear.
After giving instructions, pick 2-3 students in the room, and call on each one individually and have them tell the class what the instructions were. Knowing they might be called on encourages them to listen more intently so that they can give an accurate answer.
Before students begin to work, ask them to turn to a neighbor and retell what the instructions were. They can help each other remember what is to be done. This also encourages students to effectively communicate with each other.
Write instructions on the board or display them through the projector– then if they weren’t listening, you don’t have to answer the same question several times, as they will have the instructions right in front of them.
As you give instructions, have them write down the instructions on their own paper. Writing things down helps to create a connection between what is written and remembered.
While it can be frustrating to have students not listen, it can be a great teaching opportunity, and there are strategies that can help students retrain their minds to be more active listeners. Not only is it a valuable skill to have within the classroom, students can learn that being an active listener is an excellent life skill to have in all areas of life– work, relationships, school, recreational time, and so on. Hearing is good, but listening is great.
Sharing can be a difficult skill to learn, especially for kids in younger grades. Preschoolers and kindergarteners in particular often have a natural tendency to not want to share. Sometimes it can be hard for them to see that they aren’t giving up a toy or other object, but instead are just letting someone else have a turn. As teachers, we can model this for our students and can do our best to teach it in our classrooms.
Since kids love picture books, I found a few children’s books that teach about sharing. These can even be read to older grades if needed.
Not Enough Lollipops by Megan Maynor and illustrated by Micah Player
Alice and her friends are at an assembly when the principal announced that the last raffle prize would be a huge bucket of lollipops. Alice was the lucky winner! But she soon found that everyone else wanted a lollipop too. The other students began to try to persuade Alice to give them one or convince her that some students didn’t deserve one for various reasons. Alice found herself getting flustered. She finally took control of the situation and declared that everyone deserved a lollipop. She had the students get into a line, and she handed out lollipops one at a time until everyone who wanted one had one. The students who had tried to persuade Alice into giving out the lollipops felt bad for the things they had said. They realized that there was enough for everyone, and that it was nice to share with everyone.
Mine! written and illustrated by Sue Heap
Amy had a blankie, bear, bunny, and bird that she loved very much. She was very happy when it was just her and her blankie and stuffies. Her twin brothers came in and wanted to play. They took bear and bunny without asking permission, and didn’t stop when Amy asked them to. Baby Joe even wanted to play. She grabbed the toys from her brothers’ hands and not so nicely told them the toys were not theirs. Her brothers were sad. Amy realized that she needed to share. She handed a toy to each brother and they all four played together. Amy learned that by sharing, everyone got to have fun!
That’s (Not) Mine written by Anna Kang and illustrated by Christopher Weyant
Two bears are fighting over a chair. The brown bear claims it is his because the blue bear got up and moved from the seat. The blue bear explains that he had sat there first, therefore it was his chair. The brown bear wouldn’t move. Blue bear brings in a rolling office chair. Brown bear is interested in it and wants to try it. After asking several times, the blue bear allows the brown bear to take the chair for a spin, only to end up crashing. Meanwhile, the blue bear has taken back the big chair. A fight ensues and they both end up crashing to the ground. Realizing they were silly to be fighting over a chair, they apologize and go play outside.
The New Small Person written and illustrated by Lauren Child
Elmore Green was an only child. He loved having everything to himself– toys, candy, his parents, and more. But one day, his parents bring home a new small person, and suddenly Elmer’s world is turned upside down. He is no longer the only one his parents have to attend to, and he doesn’t get to choose everything like he is used to doing. He doesn’t like this new small person and wants it to go back to wherever it came from, but the new person stayed and continued to grow. He didn’t like this small person following him everywhere. That changed one night when Elmer had a scary dream. This new small person hopped into Elmer’s bed to comfort him. Soon, Elmer realized that it was okay to have a brother, and that doing things together was more fun than doing things alone.
The Hare Who Wouldn’t Share written and illustrated by Steve Small
Hare liked to be by himself and most definitely didn’t like to share. He had a whole patch of turnips that he had grown, and wanted them all for himself. When a family of rabbits moved in just down the way from Hare, they stopped to say hello and admire Hare’s turnips. Hare was grumpy and told them to go away and that he did not want to share. One day Hare noticed the rabbits had a lovely patch of carrots growing by their burrow. The rabbits made soup with the carrots and invited neighbors to join them for a party. He could not figure out why the rabbits would want to share something they had worked so hard for. One night, Hare came across a big boar in the woods. The boar was greedy and mean and snatched Hare’s turnips right out of his hands. Hare knew the boar would head to the rabbits’ carrot patch next. He quickly ran home to gather some turnips to make a trail for the boar to follow. This bought him enough time to warn the rabbits and help them harvest all of their carrots. When the boar came, there weren’t any carrots or rabbits to be found, as they were all safe in the burrow. While Hare was helping the rabbits, the boar ate every last turnip in Hare’s patch. The rabbits come to the rescue and offer Hare a place to stay for the winter. Hare learns the importance of sharing and being kind.
Pig the Pug written and illustrated by Aaron Blabey
The Pig the Pug series is one of my favorite children’s book series. Told in a rhyme format, they all teach great lessons in a fun way. In this book, Pig is a very selfish pug. He lives in a house with another dog named Trevor. Trevor always wants to play with Pig and his toys, but Pig won’t have it. Afraid Trevor will steal all of his toys, Pig gathers the toys and makes a big pile so that Trevor can’t take them. Pig stands on top of the pile to protect it, and soon finds himself in trouble, as the pile is not stable. He takes a big tumble and, much to his dismay, is soon forced to share his toys with Trevor while he is recovering from his fall.
Teaching students the importance of sharing can be fun, and these cute books can help! After all, sharing is caring!
We can all agree that there are pros and cons to giving kids homework, and that it really should only be given if it’s meaningful. Reading, for example, is homework I’m never mad about. Building reading skills is crucial for life long success, and the more kids do it, the better they will be at it. Sending home a coloring page, however, doesn’t seem as meaningful to me. Fun? Sure. But a good use of precious after-school time? Not so much.
I saw a social media post the other day that got me thinking about things that aren’t assigned as homework, but maybe should be. Skills that are important for every day life, people skills, and problem solving skills. Grading them would be subjective, and participation and effort would matter more than the outcome, but what is learned/gained would set kids up for long term success beyond the walls of the classroom.
How would something like this be assigned and evaluated? I suppose it depends on the skill being practiced. Perhaps teachers can create a “menu” of possible skills for students to choose from. Maybe some teachers would want to assign everyone in the class the same task to work on. Some might even want to create “task groups” where small groups of students are all given a certain task and can help each other and cheer each other on. Evaluation might look like parents signing a log, pictures, written reflection, or some other tangible or observable result of the student’s practice.
What kinds of things would be assigned? I think this depends on your students’ needs and situations. Obviously, a high school teacher is going to assign some things that are geared more toward older kids, such as learning to balance a bank account, whereas a kindergarten teacher might assign something like learning to tie shoes.
Here’s a few ideas to get you started:
Learning to balance a bank account
Learning to make a phone call and set an appointment or order food— not everything has to be done through an app
Going to the store to make a purchase— selecting your items, conversing with a cashier, and sticking to a budget are great skills
Cooking a simple meal (with adult supervision)
Spending time outside— fresh air does wonders for both the body and mind
Doing a puzzle or playing a board game with at least one other person— teamwork, cooperation, and good sportsmanship are essential
Sitting down to eat a meal as a family— a great chance to have good conversations
Helping with household chores— those skills are needed!
Helping people
Learning how to write a letter, address an envelope, and send it in the mail
Go to the library, get a library card, and check out some books
Free play— giving kids unstructured play time is SO important for their imaginations
If possible, learning how to maintain a yard
Learning how to give and receive compliments
When it’s an appropriate age, learning to ask someone out on a date, face-to-face
Finding a good sleep routine
Screen-free time— it’s good for so many reasons
Spending time at a retirement or assisted living facility— the older generation can teach us so much
Meditation
Some might argue that parents should be incorporating these skills into their family’s routines and lives, but not all family situations allow for things like this, and unfortunately, not all parents are supportive and involved in their children’s lives.
And yes, teachers already do so much, using their days to teach core subjects. But I don’t know of a single teacher that wouldn’t mind devoting at least a little bit of time to helping their students build skills that will set them up for life long success.
Regardless of where you stand regarding these things being assigned as homework, I’m sure we can all agree that the rising generation needs support, guidance, and encouragement as they navigate life and learn essential skills.
We’re just over a week into the new school year, and one of my kids has already pushed back over required reading time. For the past several years, his teachers have set a required time for reading every night, ranging from 20-30 minutes. As an avid reader and former teacher, I’ve obviously been on board with these daily reading requirements. It’s a no-brainer for me.
This year, however, his teacher won’t be assigning a specific amount of time or number of pages to read each night. Instead, students have a chart on their school computers where they can log any minutes they read, though it’s not a requirement or an assignment. Naturally, my son took that to mean, “I can read for even just one minute and put that in my log!” Fourth graders, right?! You can imagine his dismay when I told him that even though his teacher wasn’t going to assign reading time, my husband and I were. Despite his nightly protests, we have held strong to this boundary, and most nights, after his 30 minutes are up, he asks if he can read just a little bit more— and who am I to say no to that?!
You might wonder why I choose to pick this battle. After all, it would be much easier to give up the fight and not have to listen to the whining and protesting every night. I’d probably even gain “cool mom” status with my son if I didn’t have him read. But honestly, I am not out to win “cool mom” status, and pushing through the whining is 100% worth it to me.
You see, I’ve encountered so many teenagers who struggle to read. Kids who really are very smart and capable, but just are not where they “should” be in regards to reading. Kids who are terrified to read out loud in front of their peers because they are not confident in their reading abilities. One way to combat this is to have kids read regularly— even a short 15 minutes a day can make a world of a difference in reading ability.
Reading goes so far beyond opening a book and following along. It opens doorways to many other skills! Reading increases vocabulary, improves writing skills, boosts confidence, encourages imagination, and increases knowledge, among other benefits. Reading is a life long skill. I know not everyone will continue to pick up a novel and read as adults, but the foundational skills gained through reading in the younger years are vital. Even on days I don’t pick up a book to read for fun, I am still reading things all day long— a menu at a restaurant, a recipe as I cook dinner, the labels on food at the store, road signs, texts, social media posts, and so on. The ability to read is one that cannot be put on the back burner.
In order for young kids to become better readers, they must keep reading. If someone wanted to be a better football player, they would continue to play football. The same goes for reading. It is simply a skill that must not be ignored. I might even go as far as to say that reading is one of the most important skills that can be learned. It is, after all, something that is used in every other subject they will learn. It is a skill that they will use no matter what career path they use.
So the next time your child or one of your students complains about reading time, remind them that you are actually helping them— Helping them become better readers, writers, thinkers, and doers, because reading is the key to opening doors to the future.
