Stop, Think, Choose – Self-Control SEL Game

- Grades
- Grade 2, Elementary
- Pages
- 21
- File type
- Preparation
- Print ready
- Subject
- Special Resources, Social Emotional Learning (SEL), Social Skills, Special Education Needs (SEN)
- Topic
- SEL Game, self-control
- Resource types
- Games, Activities, Posters, Classroom Decor
- Preparation
- Print ready
About this resource
What's inside this resource
In this resource, you will get a fun SEL game for students. This STOP THINK CHOOSE game is to help students practice slowing down when they are upset and thinking through their feelings and choices. There is a stop sign handout that all students receive and can take home. This can also be used as an SEL poster in the classroom to reference this strategy of Stopping (calming down and stopping what you are doing), Thinking (How do I and other feel right now?) and Choosing a safe and respectful choice. When students play the game, they will land on ice cream truck, car and stop spaces. The ice cream truck is for fun. The students will read the joke or "would you rather" question to the group and they will guess the answer or share their preferred choice of a "would you rather" question. The car spaces are for scenarios where students can walk it through the stop, think, and choose strategy. The stop sign spaces for for students to act out a motion, saying, or movement around the room activity and the person on their right will tell them to stop. Students will practice stopping right away. This is great practice for when teachers ask students to stop and they need to learn to stop right away in the moment. Lastly there is an extension handout for students to fill out that assesses if they understand the strategy. There are 24 car scenario cards and 24 ice cream truck cards for fun. There is an action needed for each space of the game. The game board is 8.5 by 11 inches but if you would like to enlarge the game board, this is possible using a copy machine and zooming to a larger size if needed. You just need game pieces and dice or an 8 sided die.
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In the classroom
Teaching tips & learning objectives
Learning objectives
Students will apply the three-step STOP-THINK-CHOOSE strategy to a described classroom or playground scenario.
Students will practice stopping a physical action immediately when a peer signals stop, using the action-wheel space.
Students will identify which stage of the STOP-THINK-CHOOSE strategy — stop, think, or choose — is shown in a written scenario by colouring the matching light.
Teaching tips
Print the scenario and "ice cream truck" cards double-sided, with the question on the back of the picture, as the file's own directions specify.
Print the STOP-THINK-CHOOSE handout page separately as a take-home poster for families, per the included directions.
Have game pieces and a standard die (or an 8-sided die for the action-wheel space) ready before play.
Use the color-the-light extension sheet after playing as a quick check of whether students can identify the STOP, THINK, and CHOOSE stages in a new scenario.
Skills covered
Self-control application — matching a described classroom scenario (sneaking a cookie, wanting to push a friend, blurting out an answer) to the STOP-THINK-CHOOSE strategy.
Impulse-stopping practice — physically stopping a movement the instant a peer signals stop, on the action-wheel space.
Strategy-stage identification — reading a short scenario and colouring the light (red, yellow, or green) that matches the STOP, THINK, or CHOOSE stage shown.
Perspective-taking — the THINK step directs students to consider how they and others are feeling before acting.
Good to know
Questions teachers ask about this resource
What happens when a player lands on an ice cream truck space instead of a scenario card space?
The player reads a joke or a would-you-rather question to the group, a lighter break from the self-control scenario cards.
What does the stop-sign space ask a player to do?
Roll an 8-sided die (or two dice), act out the numbered prompt — such as patting your head while rubbing your stomach, or skipping in place — and stop the instant the player to their right calls stop.
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Resource details
Concepts & topics
Core concepts
self-control
STOP-THINK-CHOOSE strategy
social-emotional learning
impulse management
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