Decision Making Skills Teaching Resources

Created by teachers, this collection of SEL teaching resources has been created with teachers — and your students — in mind. The goal? To save you time on your lesson plans while also helping you help your students to improve their decision making skills in a safe and supportive classroom environment!

Looking for some tips on teaching kids to make good decisions? Read on for a primer from our teacher team.

What Is Decision Making? A Kid-Friendly Definition

Do you need a kid-friendly definition to help explain what these skills are to your students? Try this one from our teacher team:

Decision making is a process of thinking carefully about different options, imagining what might happen next and then picking the best choice based on what you know and feel.

In order to do this, we use special skills or abilities that help us to make smart choices and think about what might happen next.

Decision Making Skill Examples

Presenting your students with examples of the different skills they may have without even knowing it, as well as those they can develop, is a great way to teach this key part of kids' social emotional learning.

For example, you might tell your second or third-graders that decision making skills can help us with all sorts of things like deciding which slide to use in the playground to what shoes to wear to school.

Here's a list of example skills we use for making decisions just about every day:

Considering the Consequences of Our Actions — Thinking about what might happen as a result of different choices and deciding which outcome is desirable can help us make smart choices.
Resisting Peer Pressure — Your students have no doubt heard about the importance of making independent decisions even when friends or others try to influence you. If not, it's time to talk about it!
Planning Ahead — When we look ahead and make plans for things down the road, we are using our skills to evaluate what we will need to do and acting accordingly.
Prioritization — Related to the skill of planning ahead is the process of determining what tasks or activities are most important and should be done first.
Evaluating Risks — Whether we're deciding whether or not it's safe to cross a street or swing up high on a swingset, assessing the potential dangers or benefits of a choice before making a decision is an important life skill.

The Steps in the Decision Making Process

As you consider how to add this particular skill to your lesson plans, how about taking a look at the steps in the decision making process? After all, by the primary grades (kindergarten to second grade), many kids understand the concept of making choices and are starting to identify different options, as well as making simple decisions in their daily routines, such as choosing activities or snacks.

But they may not know where to go next or how to move beyond the first step of the larger decision making process.

Here's a simple step-by-step guide that may help.

Step 1 — Identifying the Problem

The process of decision what to do begins by recognizing that there's a problem or a situation that needs to be addressed. This could be in the form of a challenge, a goal you want to achieve, a choice you need to make or a decision to be taken. It's important to clearly understand what needs to be resolved or what the desired outcome is.

Questions to Ask Yourself

What is the specific issue or challenge?
What are the goals or objectives I want to achieve?
What decision or action is required in this situation?

Step 2 — Gathering Information

In the second step, you begin collecting all the information you need to make a good decision. This step is a bit like collecting puzzle pieces so you can put them together. You might research the problem in a book or on the Internet, or you might ask a trusted adult or a friend for more information.

Questions to Ask Yourself

What do I already know about this problem?
What other information do I need?

Step 3 — Exploring Your Options

Once you have enough information, it's time to come up with the different choices or options that you could pick. For example, if your friend is coming to visit, and you want to plan a fun night, you may consider the different games you could play, movies you could watch and foods you could eat, among other options.

Questions to Ask Yourself

What different choices do I have?
What are the possible ways to solve this problem?

Step 4 — Evaluating Your Choices

Next, it's time to look at each option and think about the good and bad things that could happen if you choose it. You'll need to consider the consequences that will come with choosing any particular option — both negative and positive ones — as well as any additional considerations that may affect your decision.

For example, if we consider the upcoming friend visit, you may want to consider the weather forecast as an additional thing to consider. If it is going to rain, you may want to skip any options that involve spending time outside!

Questions to Ask Yourself

What are the good things that could happen if I choose each option?
What are the bad things that could happen?

Step 5 — Making a Decision

Now it's time for the big moment — making your decisions! Based on what you've learned and thought about, you will choose the option that you think is the best one to solve your problem or achieve your goal.