The Power of Positive Self-Talk in Kindergarten

Educators know how powerful words can be, especially in our classrooms. Self-talk can bring about positivity and productivity. This positive self-talk doesn’t always happen naturally, but it can be encouraged and taught to our students. Just like anything, positivity can be a learned behavior, and I believe it’s my job as an educator to ensure that students have academic and emotional success.

For the past three years, I’ve really tried to build these opportunities into my kindergarten classroom. I use some quick practices to promote a growth mindset and increase my students’ self-esteem. It’s so important for students to believe in themselves. By utilizing affirmations in my classroom, I’ve been better equipped to help them do so.

Affirmations are positive phrases that someone can say to themselves or use to affirm another person. Repeating affirmations helps students focus on what they are able to accomplish and replaces negativity with positivity. In my classroom, I use phrases such as, “You are kind!” or “You are so brave!” These affirmations give students specific traits that I am noticing about them. Before being tasked with thinking about affirmations, students might miss recognizing something that they’ve truly done well.

Design the Classroom Environment

In my classroom, affirmations can be found in multiple places. At the beginning of the year, my class and I determine which of these define us as a group. In the past, I have had, “We are smart. We are caring. We are good friends.” I post them around my classroom and have a bulletin board space dedicated to social and emotional learning. Each student also has their own affirmation. Together we decide on what that may be.

This can be done in many different ways. I write their chosen affirmation on their desk using a marker that only wipes away with water. In other years, students decorated a card with their affirmation on it, then laminated it, and then my students chose where they wanted to keep their card. Some students kept it in a pencil pouch, and others kept it in their folder.

Develop a Classroom Mantra

Our day always starts with a morning meeting. My students and I repeat our daily mantra together during this time. For each part of our mantra, we use hand motions to help with engagement and memory. In the future, I think it would be so cool to incorporate sign language into our routine.

One recent mantra was, “I am smart! I am brave! I am strong! I am kind!” So, we used hand motions for the words smart (pointing to our head), brave (pretending to hold a shield), strong (flexing our arm muscles) and kind (touching our heart with our right hand) while we recited the mantra together. Whenever a student felt discouraged with their work or made a mistake, I recited the mantra again. I’ve even noticed that some of my students practice taking deep breaths and saying parts of the affirmations in between each one to calm down!

Affirmation-Focused Class Activities

There are so many activities that you can do with affirmations. The best two that I’ve used in my classroom have been student self-portraits and hunting for affirmations. At the beginning of the year, my students create a self-portrait. I have them complete a sentence that starts with, “I am…” and students decide on a word to describe themselves. A student may say, “I am brave.”

For their portrait, they create a picture of themselves being brave—like when they went to the doctor or dentist. Then, they decorate their self-portrait however they choose. I provide paint, crayons, oil pastels, and yarn and other craft tools for them to use to finish their project. My students love seeing their work hung up in the classroom, and it serves as a great reminder of how positively they can view themselves. After about a month or so, I take the pictures down and make a book out of them that I put in our classroom library. My students enjoy looking through the book during daily silent reading time.

Another activity that my students love is an affirmation hunt. I print off and laminate little cards with affirmations on them. I use affirmations that students in past years have said or from the list we made as a class. Then, I hide them around our classroom. Each student has the opportunity to find one affirmation. Once they do, they come and sit down in a circle on our rug. Once everyone has found a card, we go around the circle and read what we found. We also discuss what that affirmation means.

I usually give students some thinking and discussion time (about three minutes) with a partner to determine some examples, encouraging them to think about an example that they’ve done. One year, for the affirmation “I am kind,” a student said that he helped his sister find her missing toy. Participating in this activity helps students choose their own affirmations for the year.

I firmly believe in the power of positive self-talk. I’ve seen it help my students when they have to do something difficult or when they need to recover after making a mistake. Although I’ve mainly used these impactful activities in my kindergarten classroom, older grade levels could also complete variations of the ideas I shared. Affirmations are a great practice to get all students thinking about what they do well and guide them toward a feeling of success.