Help kids develop perseverance, grit, resilience, and a growth mindset with these engaging social skills games and activities! This interactive counseling resource helps elementary students explore what it means to keep trying when something is difficult, respond to setbacks, and build confidence when facing challenges.

With 60 perseverance scenario cards, an interactive board game, sorting mats, and reflection activities, students can explore everyday situations that require persistence and problem-solving. Rather than simply telling children to never give up, these activities create opportunities to discuss what perseverance can look like, including trying a different strategy, asking for help, taking a break, and returning to a meaningful goal.

This resource is Set 1 of the Perseverance and Grit Social Skills Treasury, a collection designed for school counselors, social workers, therapists, psychologists, educators, and families supporting children's social emotional learning (SEL).

Use these printable and digital activities during individual counseling, small-group counseling, classroom SEL lessons, and other settings where children are developing resilience and self-management skills.

📦 What's Included:

✔️ Perseverance Board Game with Spinner, Pawns, and Dice

• An interactive game for practicing perseverance and discussing how to respond when challenges arise.

• Use the game to introduce concepts such as determination, resilience, persistence, and trying different approaches.

✔️ 60 Perseverance Scenario Cards

• Digital and printable scenario cards featuring situations that invite children to explore perseverance and grit.

• Encourage students to recognize opportunities for persistence, problem-solving, and seeking support.

• Use during the board game, sorting activities, counseling discussions, or classroom lessons.

✔️ Perseverance Sorting Mats

• Hands-on sorting activities that help children distinguish between examples of perseverance and situations where someone may need additional strategies or support.

• Invite students to explain their reasoning and consider different ways to respond to challenges.

✔️ Dice with Reflection Questions About Overcoming Obstacles

• Interactive reflection prompts for discussing challenges, persistence, and resilience.

• Encourage children to connect the concepts to their own experiences.

✔️ "I Can" Learning Targets Poster

• A visual teaching tool that reinforces the perseverance skills students are practicing.

• Display during counseling sessions, small groups, or classroom SEL lessons.

✔️ Playing a Game Visual Poster

• A visual support for participating in games and practicing social skills during group activities.

✔️ SMART IEP and Treatment Plan Objectives

• Ready-to-use objectives related to perseverance, resilience, and social emotional learning.

• Support individualized counseling goals, intervention planning, and progress monitoring.

✔️ Data Collection Sheet

• A practical tool for tracking student progress and documenting skill development.

✔️ Editable Letter to Families About Grit and Perseverance

• A customizable family communication resource explaining the skills children are learning.

• Share ideas for reinforcing perseverance and resilience outside counseling sessions.

✔️ Positive Notes Home

• Encouraging notes for recognizing students' efforts and sharing progress with families.

✔️ Suggested Companion Resources

• Recommendations for extending learning through additional activities and materials.

✔️ Ideas to Extend and Practice Perseverance

• Additional suggestions for reinforcing perseverance skills beyond the games.

✔️ Color and Black-and-White Versions

• Flexible printing options for different settings and classroom needs.

🎒 Quick Details: Elementary students | 👥 Individual counseling, small groups + classroom SEL | 🖨️ Printable PDF + Google Slides + PowerPoint | 🎯 Perseverance, grit, resilience, growth mindset + problem-solving

🛍️ Bundle & Save:

Want a discount on the complete collection of perseverance and grit activities?

• Check out the Perseverance and Grit Social Skills Bundle, which includes three complementary sets at a discount.

Want an even larger social skills collection?

• Explore the Social Skills Treasury Growing Bundle for even more social skills activities covering a variety of SEL topics.

🎯 Skills Addressed:

✔️ Understanding perseverance and grit

✔️ Developing resilience when facing challenges

✔️ Building a growth mindset

✔️ Exploring persistence and determination

✔️ Recognizing opportunities to try again

✔️ Practicing flexible thinking

✔️ Developing problem-solving strategies

✔️ Learning from mistakes and setbacks

✔️ Managing frustration

✔️ Identifying when to ask for help

✔️ Developing self-awareness

✔️ Practicing self-management

✔️ Building confidence with challenging tasks

✔️ Reflecting on personal strengths and progress

✔️ Exploring coping strategies for difficult moments

💡 Ways to Use It:

• Introduce perseverance during individual counseling sessions
• Play the board game during small-group counseling
• Use the 60 scenario cards to explore everyday challenges
• Practice sorting examples of perseverance with the sorting mats
• Invite students to explain different ways someone might respond to an obstacle
• Use the reflection dice for meaningful group discussions
• Explore how asking for help can be part of perseverance
• Discuss the difference between taking a break and abandoning a goal
• Help students identify strategies they can try when something feels difficult
• Use the "I Can" poster to reinforce learning targets
• Incorporate the digital scenarios into classroom SEL lessons
• Use the SMART objectives for individualized counseling plans
• Track progress with the included data collection sheet
• Send positive notes home to recognize student effort
• Share the editable family letter to extend learning beyond school
• Pair the games with growth mindset lessons and discussions about learning from mistakes

👩‍🏫 Who It's For:

School Counselors and School Social Workers: Teach perseverance, resilience, and coping with challenges through engaging individual and small-group counseling activities.

Child Therapists and Psychologists: Use scenarios, games, and reflection prompts to explore persistence, frustration tolerance, and problem-solving.

Special Education Teachers: Provide structured opportunities to practice perseverance and develop individualized social emotional learning goals.

Classroom Teachers: Incorporate grit and growth mindset activities into classroom SEL instruction, morning meetings, and character education lessons.

Speech-Language Pathologists: Use discussion scenarios and reflection questions to support expressive language, reasoning, and social communication.

Occupational Therapists: Incorporate the activities when working on frustration tolerance, flexible thinking, and participation in challenging tasks.

Homeschool Educators and Families: Explore perseverance and resilience through interactive games and meaningful conversations.

🖨️ Format & Download:

This comprehensive digital resource is delivered as a ZIP file containing materials in the following formats:

✔️ Printable PDF resources

✔️ Google Slides activities

✔️ PowerPoint file

✔️ Color and black-and-white options

The resource includes the 60 perseverance scenarios, board game materials, sorting mats, reflection activities, visual posters, objectives, data collection sheet, family letter, positive notes, and supplemental teaching ideas.

Use the printable activities for hands-on counseling sessions or the digital resources for interactive instruction and screen sharing.

Please ensure you have compatible software to open ZIP, PDF, Google Slides, and PowerPoint files.

This is a digital download. No physical materials will be shipped.

📌 Important Notes:

Perseverance does not mean pushing through every challenge without support. Children can demonstrate resilience by asking for help, taking breaks, adjusting their goals, using accommodations, or trying a different approach.

The goal is to help students develop flexible, supportive strategies for navigating challenges rather than expecting them to persist through distress or inaccessible expectations.

Students may respond to scenarios verbally, through writing, pointing, sorting, or other preferred communication methods.

This resource is part of the Social Skills Treasury series and can be used independently or alongside Sets 2 and 3.

This is a digital download. No physical materials will be shipped. No refunds on digital purchases.