Choices vs. Consequences – Why Is This Important to Teach?

Teaching your students about choices and their consequences is fundamental for their holistic development. Let’s take a look at why integrating this SEL topic into your lessons is crucial!

Life Skills Development – Learning how to make good choices and understanding their outcomes is very important for students. It helps them to think about different situations, predict what might happen, and make good decisions. These skills are very important for success in school, work and personal life.

Personal Responsibility – Understanding the results of our actions helps us to be responsible. When we make choices, it can affect other things, and this knowledge can give us the power to take charge of our decisions.

Risk Assessment and Management – When students understand what might happen as a result of their actions, they can decide which choices are safe and which are risky. This helps them make careful decisions and handle risks in a smart way.

Get Your Students to Think About Their Actions 

Teach Starter has created a worksheet to use with your 3–5th grade students as they are learning about predicting consequences for their actions. This teacher-created resource includes 8 different scenarios where students must predict a consequence for each. Some of the scenarios include: 

• Maci forgot her homework at home and didn’t tell the teacher. What might happen to Maci during class or when it’s time to turn in her homework?
• Emery spends all her time gossiping about classmates. What might be the consequences for Emery’s friendships and her reputation among her classmates?

How to Get Your Consequences Worksheet

If you are ready to get your hands on this SEL worksheet, head on over to the green download button! Here, you will find the quick-print PDF file and the editable Google Slides version. If selecting the Google Slides version, please note that you will first be prompted to make a copy of the resource to your personal drive before accessing it.

Don’t stop there! We’ve got more activities to shorten your lesson planning time:  

teaching resource

Consequence Chart - Graphic Organizer

A blank consequence chart to use when planning a persuasive text.

teaching resource

Analyzing Situations Sorting Activity

Use this sorting activity with your students to practice analyzing situations for their problems, consequences and possible solutions.

teaching resource

Tiered Behavior Plan – Editable Template

Establish clear expectations, rewards and tiered consequences with this free behavior plan template.