Executive Functioning for Kids: Making a Plan
This session includes executive functioning activities for kids, helping students learn how a plan can help them take on new challenges at school. Through a short video, a discussion about planning small steps toward a goal like reading many books, and a quick sentence-finishing game, they explore how to break it down and check in with themselves. The takeaway: a clear plan makes big tasks feel more doable.
Extension activity
- Skill
- Self-Regulation
- Goal
- Executive Functioning
- Grade level
- Elementary School
Get everything you need to teach the skill
These materials are part of a no-prep session designed by our clinical team, with all the structure, scaffolding, and support you need to teach included.
Engaging materials
Video modeling lessonMaking a Plan
Making a plan can help learners succeed in school and tackle new challenges. This video lesson breaks down the skills needed to make a plan successfully.
- Extension activity
Interactive Worksheet: How to Make a Plan
Learners are tasked with matching various scenarios with the correct skills needed to make a plan successfully.
Plus everything you need to teach them
Warm-up
- Video: Hot Cocoa Breathing2:05
- Video: Daily Intention2:59
- Video: Body Squeeze2:12
Session Opener
Guiding Question: What are the steps in making a plan?
Practice
- Discussion Question
- Role-Play Activity
- Mini Game
How to use it with your students
- 1Watch Play the video modeling lesson so students see the skill in action.
- 2Practice Try the skill together with a discussion prompt, role-play, or mini game.
- 3Extend Use the extension activity to help students carry the skill further.
What's Covered
In this lesson, students learned how to make a plan by setting a goal and breaking it into smaller steps. They practiced deciding when to work on each step and checking in with themselves to see if they were getting closer to their goal.
Key Terms
- Break it Down
- Splitting a big goal into smaller steps you can do one at a time. Smaller steps feel easier and help you stay motivated.
- Check In With Yourself
- Stopping for a moment to ask yourself, "How am I doing right now?" Noticing how your body and feelings are doing helps you figure out what you need next.
Sample IEP Goal This Session Supports
-
Executive Functioning
Given a multi-step task, learner will use at least one self-selected organizational strategy (e.g., visual planner, breaking the task into steps, visual timer) to initiate and work through the task with decreasing adult support in 4 out of 5 opportunities independently/given X prompt(s).
Send this tip home to support generalization
At home or in the classroom, when a student has something big they want to do, try asking what the first small step could be. You can also check in together later by asking how it is going.
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Frequently asked questions
Is this intervention free?
Yes, this ready-to-teach session on Making a Plan is free. You can access this intervention free for 14 days through the Everyday Speech Session Library. Every user gets three free sessions, but you can get more or extend your access by sharing the Session Library with friends and colleagues.
What ages is this for?
These materials are designed for elementary school students.
What's included?
You'll get access to your choice of warm-up videos, a session opener, a core material on Making a Plan, three practice prompts, and an extension activity, Interactive Worksheet: How to Make a Plan.
What skill does this intervention teach?
This ready-to-teach session is on self-regulation - more specifically, executive functioning.
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