Responsibility

The Stepping Up Social Skills book series includes 4 titles that teach young readers everything from making hard choices, asking for help, disagreeing the right way, staying on task and being responsible.  This storybook series shows elementary...

Winner of the 2021 Counselor's Choice Award! Braden's parents must think he can't get enough of cleaning and doing chores! It's always "clean this" Braden or "do that" Braden! How will he ever get to bed if he has to clean the whole bathroom after...

Winner of the 2021 Counselor's Choice Award! Braden's schoolwork seems to be getting tougher each year. It's getting so tough that Braden fears it will soon become impossible to get everything done! What happened to the good old days when school...

Winner of the 2021 Counselor's Choice Award! It seems that the older Blake gets, the more he is expected to do!  Blake's baseball team is having a bake sale fundraiser, and he just can't wait for his mom to whip up a batch of her famous chocolate...

New Title - Coming August 2026! Ezekiel – who his buddies all call EZ – is about to discover a superpower he and his friends never knew they had!    When the school counselor, Mrs. Bernet, teaches a lesson about positive peer...

Winner of the 2021 Counselor's Choice Award! Blake generally has a good time...until someone interrupts him and tells him he needs to do something RIGHT NOW! He doesn't understand why he has to clean his room THIS SECOND! And he'd much rather be doing...

Winner of the 2021 Counselor's Choice Award! Problem solving involves many other executive functioning behaviors, including reasoning, attention, planning, initiation, working memory, and self-monitoring. The one thing all of us have in common is that we...

Isaac is a second-grader who hates having to decide between options that are not fun, totally boring, or too hard. If he wants to ride his bike to a buddy's house, Isaac has to wear his helmet even though it's so hot he thinks his head will melt. Or, he...

Work hard until the job is done!  That is the message Isaac hears repeatedly from his teacher, his coach, and his mom. They have to keep reminding him to finish his tasks because Isaac always – always – puts fun first.  During math...

Staying on task until a job is done can be tough for adults, so it's not surprising that it's also difficult for most children. Teaching kids the importance of staying focused and finishing tasks is something that will serve them well in life. Help...

Self-monitoring is the ability to observe and evaluate one’s behavior. Give students the working knowledge of learning how to pay attention, stay on task and follow instructions with these five downloadable activities from Bryan Smith's How Did You...

Working memory is an important executive function because it helps children (and adults!) recall information required to complete tasks or functions, such as notetaking, spelling, or the order of operations in math. Some children seem to excel in this...

Planning is the ability to create a roadmap to reach a goal or achieve a task, while prioritizing involves the ability to make decisions about what is important for you to focus on next. It can be challenging for children to know where to get started on...

Bryan Smith's Kindness Counts is a story about teaching random acts of kindness. These activities will help teach the importance of being kind to others, even when it isn't easy. Worksheets, games, discussion topics and group activities...

Initiative is the ability to start an activity, plan, or task. Learning how to take initiative and get things done is an important executive function skill for children. Author and educator Bryan Smith has developed five activities to accompany the...

Problem solving involves many other executive functioning behaviors, including reasoning, attention, planning, initiation, working memory, and self-monitoring. Teach your students problem solving skills with these activities that accompany the...