Downloadable Activities: What Were You Thinking?

Impulse control is an executive functioning skill that allows you think before you act and to prioritize long-term success over short-term gains. When you have good self-control, you are able to resist doing things that may be harmful to yourself or to others. Author and educator Bryan Smith has developed four excellent activities to accompany the storybook What Were You Thinking?. These worksheets are designed to remind children the steps to managing their impulses through writing prompts, drawing, and discussion questions.

Four Downloadable Activities include:

• Activity 1 - I'm Prepared for Next Time - Students will write about a time they made a poor choice, and identify alternatives for handling the situation more positively in the future. 
• Activity 2 - Time to Be Funny or Not? - Students will determine whether situations are appropriate or inappropriate times to be funny.
• Activity 3 - What are the Steps? - Students will create a facial cutout of themselves and write the steps to help control their impulses on the back.
• Activity 4 - Create a Better Option - Students will use the four steps to controlling your impulses to determine a better way to handle example situations from the story.

What Were You Thinking? is part of the Executive FUNction series and is recommended for these activities.

Also available is the colorful, downloadable Impulse Control Poster that can be displayed in classrooms, hallways, the cafeteria, and other common areas within your school. 

An email address must be provided to obtain the activities!

Produced by Boys Town Press