Free After the Fall Growth Mindset Lessons

Growth Mindset Lessons

As soon as I read After the Fall by Dan Santat I knew that I wanted to use it in my classroom. Besides the amazing illustrations, it has an incredible growth mindset message.

I have tried many different behaviour management and self-regulation methods in my classroom over the years. I have seen the most success with growth mindset. When students start understanding what it means to have a growth mindset they are able to take a moment and change their thinking.

I have seen first hand how students who previously got very upset/disruptive because they thought work was too hard or because they had to fix an error, were now talking themselves through those situations and calming themselves down more quickly.


Seeing this, tells me that I need to continue incorporating growth mindset lessons into our days. This is one of the reasons I created these growth mindset lessons for After the Fall.

What is Included?

Lesson plans for an interactive read aloud with guiding questions. I also included templates for printing the questions on sticky notes. You can easily put them in your book, without marking up the book pages. 

Fixed vs Growth Mindset

Humpty Dumpty’s mindset chances throughout the story. This leads perfectly into discussions about which of his thoughts/actions are examples of a fixed mindset and which are examples of a growth mindset.

I wanted the fixed vs growth mindset activity to be a differentiated one so there are 2 versions of it. 

1.  Examples are provided for students to cut out and sort (the picture above).
2.  Students have to write their own examples of when Humpty showed a fixed and a growth mindset. 

Lesson plans and templates for a lesson on throwing away fears. Students will reflect on what fears are holding them back. Then they will create a paper airplane that they will send their fears away on.

Overcoming Fear

A variety of different graphic organizer activities that students can complete over multiple lessons. These graphic organizers focus on students fears and how they can overcome them like Humpty Dumpty did. 

Writing Prompts

I love to have my students write about a mentor text we have read. This inspired me to create 5 different writing prompts connected to After the Fall. 

These can be used in different ways. I create a mini book for each student and each day of the week, they complete one of the prompts. Once the week is over they will have a completed book to share with a buddy and to take home to share with family.

The writing prompts also make great exit tickets, if you want to use only some of them.

Quote Posters

I love to have visuals to display in the classroom so students can get reminders of our activities throughout the day. Because of this I designed a variety of inspirational posters with quotes from the book.

There are colored and black and white versions so you have options as to how you want to print them. They look super cute put in a picture frame and placed on a bookshelf.

Get The Growth Mindset Lessons for FREE!

By signing up for my email newsletters you can get all the After the Fall Growth Mindset activities for free!

Need the Book?

If you are not familiar with the book or you want to get your own copy, you can find them here. Amazon (affiliate links):
.com — https://amzn.to/2TEWeiT
.ca — https://amzn.to/2TDcwJq


I know your students will love this book and these activities as much as mine do.
Cheers,