By Chloe and Andrea Pullan
Hey guys! I am excited to talk to you about setting goals! When I think about setting goals, I think about what is something that I really want to get better at.
I have told you before that I love playing basketball, so I will talk about a goal I set to get better at basketball. One goal I have set for myself lately is to improve my free throw shot percentage. I have set a goal to make at least 65% of my free throws. I am only 10, so my dad thought that was a good starting point. Once I hit that goal, he told me that I can continue the same goal, but up the percentage. I think that is a pretty good idea because I know that free throw shooting can make or break a game; at least, that is what my dad says! So anyway, when I set a goal, I think about what I need to do to meet that goal. Well, they always say practice makes perfect, so I practice shooting free throws. I do play on two different basketball teams right now, so I can’t shoot every night like I really need to, but on the nights I don’t have a game, I shoot at least 30 free throws. I keep track on a calendar of how many I make out of 30. The calendar helps me see if I am getting better or (hopefully not) worse! This also motivates me to keep trying because I like it when I see that I have marked off days of the month. My dad always knows how many free throws I shoot during a game and how many I make. He always asks me after the game if I know, sometimes I do, and sometimes I don’t. I will have to keep you posted on my free throw percentages in the future!
In the past, I have set goals for myself either at home or at school. One goal I had was to read the book The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane in a month. Reading isn’t my favorite subject, but my mom says I need to read more. I talked to my teacher and she helped me break the book up into little sections to read at a time. This helped me a lot because it didn’t seem like too much to read at once. I did notice that there were a few times I read more than my teacher suggested because I really liked the book! I met this goal and it made me feel really good. That is one good thing about setting goals, if you meet them it makes you feel really good about yourself.
Don’t let me fool you though, there are times that I have set a goal and I have not met it. When I talked to my mom about it she said it was ok, but we need to think about my goal and figure out what we might change so that I can meet my goal. She said it is good to learn from not meeting a goal to help me with future goals.
So, my suggestion to you is to choose something that you feel that you need to work on. Talk to your parents, grandparents, or a teacher about your goal. Ask them to help you make a plan to meet your goal, adults are really good at this! Then figure out a way to track your progress and share that with friends, family, and your teachers. Make sure and let people know when you meet your goal too!
Bag of Money Game
Materials: hundred grid, coins in a bag, game pieces
Directions:
1. Print or make a 100’s chart and put coins in a bag.
2. Player 1 draws a coin from the bag. They identify the coin and name the value.
3. Player 1 moves their game piece the number of spaces that the value of the coin is. (Example: Draw a nickel, move 5 spaces)
4. Player 2 follows steps 1 and 2.
5. Player 1 draws another coin from the bag, identifiers the coin, and names the value. Using all coins drawn so far Player 1 counts the total amount of coins and moves to that value on the 100’s chart.
6. Play continues until the first player makes it to 100.
*Once counting and adding the change gets fluid, take the 100’s chart away to challenge the player.
