Great Classroom Habits for Kids in 2020

January / 2020

Discover ways to encourage innovative thinking, healthy competition, hands-on learning, and more!

There are many great habits you can help students cultivate this year. Read through our list of habits below, and learn the easy things you can start doing today to help your students grow healthy habits in 2020!

Practicing Innovative Thinking

How can you help your students practice innovative thinking from a young age? One suggestion PsychLearningCurve.Org has is to “re-word assignments to promote creative thinking.... [by] adding words like “create,” “design,” “invent,” “imagine,” “suppose,” to your assignments.” For instance, you could design an activity that says “come up with more than one solution” or “use your creativity.”

If you’re looking for an innovative, design-focused activity for your class, check out our 3D App Design Competition. If one of your students comes up with our next app design, they’ll win two Blocks Rock! Games and a pizza party for their classroom!

Click here to learn more about the Blocks Rock! 3D App Design Competition.

Engaging in Healthy Competition

Healthy competition promotes positive skills and life lessons, and you can help kids participate in healthy competition by creating a safe atmosphere where kids can compete, collaborate, and learn. If you’re interested in helping kids develop a habit of healthy competition, check out our blog series:

Healthy Competition for Kids: Learn about what healthy competition means, what healthy and unhealthy competition looks like, and the benefits of healthy competition!

How to Encourage Healthy Competition in Kids: Learn about the importance of intrinsic motivation, and read through ways you can start encouraging healthy competition today!

Activities that Promote Healthy Competition: To complete our healthy competition series, we’re sharing different activities that are great for helping kids practice healthy competition.

Finding Positive Role Models

Positive role models provide kids with inspiration for their future. No doubt, you are a role model for your students and kids! In addition to a close role model, one thing you can encourage kids to do in 2020 is find a positive role model that helps them identify a future they want to create.

Our blog series, STEM Role Models, provides you with an opportunity to talk to your students about many STEM pioneers that could inspire your students as they think about their careers.

If you’re interested in promoting role models in 2020, check out these articles:

Using Hands-On Learning

Technology has allowed for many advancements in education, but this year, you might consider more ways to promote learning and play that don’t rely on screens.

As this article from Scholastic.com says, “Kids learn through all their senses," says Ben Mardell, PhD, a researcher with Project Zero at Harvard University, "and they like to touch and manipulate things.”

There are many hands-on activities, such as Blocks Rock!, that are fun for kids and also build critical learning skills. If you’re looking for season-specific ideas, we have a list of bucket list activities that should provide you with inspiration:

Thank you for all you do for our children’s futures!

Undoubtedly, the work you are doing is shaping and creating a better future. We hope you’ve found these classroom habits helpful.

If you’re looking for a way to bring Blocks Rock! to your classroom or organization for a free or reduced price, we have a few resources for you: