It is the third week of school. During center time, a four-year-old wants the red truck. Another child has the red truck. In the next two seconds, one of several things will happen: a grab, a shove, a scream, or a voice saying, "Can I have a turn when you're done?" Only one of those is the choice we hope for, and it is the only one that has to be taught.
Young children are not short on feelings or wants. What they are often short on is a picture of what to do instead. "Stop grabbing" tells a child what is wrong. "Ask for a turn" tells them what to do next. That shift, from naming what to stop to teaching what to start, is the core idea behind green and red choices.
This guide covers how to introduce green and red choices in a preschool, Pre-K or kindergarten classroom, how to teach one choice at a time, a four-week plan and how to respond in the moment when a red choice happens.
The Idea in Plain Words
A green choice is a safe, kind or helpful thing to do. A red choice is one that hurts someone, breaks something, or makes it hard for others to learn or play. The colors borrow from a traffic light, which most young children already understand: green means go, red means stop.
Three principles keep the system healthy:
- The choice is red or green, never the child. Say "That was a red choice," never "You are being red" or "You're a red kid today." Children make choices; choices can change.
- Every red choice has a green partner. Grabbing pairs with asking for a turn. Yelling pairs with a calm voice. Running inside pairs with walking feet. Teaching the partner is the whole point.
- Green choices get noticed more than red ones. If children hear about red choices ten times as often as green ones, the system becomes a punishment chart. Flip the ratio.
Teaching One Choice: A Five-Step Mini-Lesson
Teaching a behavior works best the same way you would teach a letter or a number: explicitly, with modeling and practice. Plan on about ten minutes at circle time.
Step 1: Name it and show it
Hold up a large card. "This is a green choice. Using gentle hands." Point to the picture, the word and the symbol.
Step 2: Model it
Act it out yourself. Gently pat a stuffed animal. Hand a puppet a crayon. Children should see exactly what the green choice looks like.
Step 3: Show the contrast, briefly
Hold up the matching red choice card. "This is a red choice. Hitting." Do not act this one out in detail, and do not have children act it out. A brief look is enough to make the contrast clear.
Step 4: Practice
Invite two or three children to show the green choice. Narrate what they do: "Maya is using gentle hands to pass the ball."
Step 5: Notice it later
The lesson continues all day. When you see the green choice, name it: "I saw you use gentle hands with the play dough. That's a green choice."
The Choose Green Behavior Choices includes a How to Teach a Choice guide that follows this kind of teach-model-practice approach, along with The Green Choice Song for circle time.
The Card Set and How to Use It
The set includes 30 green choice cards and 24 red choice cards, each with a picture, a word and a symbol so children who are not yet reading can use them. The cards come in three formats:
- Large display cards for a wall display under the Green Choices and Red Choices poster headers.
- Small sorting cards for whole-group or center sorting.
- Choice necklace cards that children or adults can wear during role-play.
Start with only a few cards. Introducing all 54 at once is too much for any young child. Teach two or three green choices a week, posting each one on the display after it has been taught.
Four Weeks of Choose Green
The set includes a 4-week behavior study plan. Here is one way to structure a month, with daily circle time lessons and short practice activities.
Week 1: What is a choice?
- Monday: Introduce the words choice, green and red using a traffic light. Sing The Green Choice Song.
- Tuesday: Teach your first green choice, ideally one children need right away, such as gentle hands or walking feet.
- Wednesday: Teach a second green choice. Add both to the display.
- Thursday: Whole-group sort. Hold up a card; children give a thumbs up for green, a thumbs down for red.
- Friday: Read the "I Can Make Green Choices" emergent reader together.
Week 2: Choices with friends
- Focus on choices that involve other children: taking turns, sharing, asking to play, using kind words.
- Introduce the What Would You Do? scenario cards. Read one aloud and ask, "What is a green choice here?"
- Role-play the green choice with puppets or volunteers wearing choice necklace cards.
- Add a sorting center with the small cards.
Week 3: Choices in our routines
- Focus on classroom routines: cleaning up, lining up, listening at the rug, raising a hand.
- Practice each routine as a class after teaching it. Lining up is easier to learn by lining up than by talking about it.
- Begin the Level 1 or Level 2 practice pages for children ready to sort and draw independently.
- Start sending positive notes home.
Week 4: Making it ours
- Review the full display. Ask children which green choice they are proudest of.
- Use more scenario cards, including ones about feelings: what to do when you are angry, sad or frustrated.
- Hand out Green Choice Champion awards, making sure every child earns recognition for something real.
- Send home the family letter and weekly home-school tracker if you have not already.
Responding When a Red Choice Happens
Teaching green choices does not mean red choices stop. Young children are still learning, and the moment after a red choice is a teaching moment, not a failure of the system.
Stay calm and brief
Keep your voice low and your words few. "That was a red choice. Hitting hurts."
Point to the green partner
"What's the green choice?" If the child does not know, show the card. "Gentle hands. Ask for a turn."
Practice it right then
If possible, give the child a chance to make the green choice now. "Let's try again. Ask Sam for a turn." When they do, notice it: "That was a green choice."
Repair if needed
If someone was hurt, help the child check on them in a way that fits your classroom. Keep it simple and skip forced apologies that the child does not understand.
Move on
Do not revisit the red choice all day. Once the child has practiced the green choice, the slate is clean.
When to look deeper
If a child makes the same red choice often, look at the situation, not just the child. When does it happen? What happens just before? Is there a skill missing, such as how to ask for help, or a need that is not being met, such as hunger, tiredness or too much noise? Talk with your team, the family and any specialists who support the child. A card set is a teaching tool. It is not a substitute for a closer look at a child who is struggling.
Running a Scenario Discussion
Scenario talk is where children practice choosing before the real moment arrives. The 16 What Would You Do? cards in the set give you ready situations, but the way you run the discussion matters as much as the card. Here is what a five-minute round can sound like, using a situation of the kind young children face every day.
"Listen to this. Ava built a tall tower. Leo walked by and knocked it down by accident. Ava feels very mad. What could Ava do?"
Hands go up. One child says, "Knock down Leo's tower." Do not correct with a frown. Say, "That's one thing she could do. Would that be a green choice or a red choice?" Let children decide. "Red. Why?" "Because it would make Leo sad." "So what's a green choice Ava could make?"
Collect two or three green ideas: tell Leo she is mad, ask a teacher for help, take a deep breath, build it again. Write or draw them on chart paper. Then invite two children to act out one of the green ideas while the class watches.
A few things make this work:
- Accept red answers calmly. Children need to think through the red choice to see why the green one is better. Shutting down a red answer teaches them to stop sharing.
- Name the feeling first. Many red choices start with a big feeling. Saying "Ava feels mad" helps children connect the feeling to the choice.
- Look for more than one green choice. There is rarely only one right answer. Several green options give children a menu to draw on in the real moment.
- Act it out. Talking about a choice and doing it are different skills. The quick role-play is what helps it stick.
- Keep it short. One or two scenarios per circle time is plenty for this age.
Later in the day, if a similar situation happens for real, you can refer back: "Remember what we said Ava could do?"
Two Levels for a Mixed Room
Preschool and kindergarten classrooms often include children who are drawing scribbles alongside children who are writing sentences. The practice pages come in two levels.
Level 1
A picture-based sort and a page where children draw the green choice. This works for children who are not yet reading and for younger preschoolers. Talk with each child about their drawing and write their words on the page if they want you to.
Level 2
A word-based sort and a page where children draw and write the better choice. This suits older Pre-K and kindergarten children who are starting to read and write simple words. Accept invented spelling. The goal is the thinking, not perfect writing.
An answer key with suggested green choices helps when a sort or scenario has more than one reasonable answer. Use it as a guide, and stay open to a child's thoughtful alternative.
Sticker Charts, Trackers and Awards
The set includes sticker charts, a weekly home-school tracker, positive notes home and Green Choice Champion awards. A few thoughts on using them well:
- Keep goals small and specific. A sticker chart for "gentle hands at centers" is easier for a child to understand than one for "being good."
- Use the chart for one or two children who need it, not as a public chart for the whole class where everyone can see who is behind.
- Celebrate effort. A child who used a calm voice when they were upset has done something hard.
- Send positive notes generously. Families often hear from school mostly when something goes wrong. A note that says "Today Leo asked for a turn instead of grabbing" can change the tone of the whole relationship.
Working With Families
Families usually want to support what happens at school; they just need to know what it is.
- Send the family letter early so families know what green and red choices mean.
- Share the language. If home and school both say "What's the green choice?", children hear the same message twice.
- Use the weekly home-school tracker for children who benefit from extra connection between home and school, and keep the tone positive.
- Suggest families notice green choices at home and tell the child what they saw.
- Respect differences. Some families have different expectations at home, and that is fine. Frame the system as "how we do things at school."
Classroom Management Tips
- Put the display at child height, so children can point to a green choice themselves.
- Keep sorting cards in a labeled bin so the center stays organized.
- Refer to the cards in the moment. A quick point to the "walking feet" card often works better than a reminder.
- Rotate featured choices. Each week, highlight the green choice your class most needs to practice.
- Teach the song early. It gives you a quick, positive transition back to the rug.
Things to Avoid
A few habits can undermine the whole system.
- Avoid public color charts that track children all day. Moving a child's name to red in front of peers can feel like shaming, especially for the same few children who move most often.
- Avoid using red choice cards as a punishment. They are a teaching tool for contrast, not a label.
- Avoid teaching too many choices at once. A few well-practiced green choices beat a wall full of cards no one remembers.
- Avoid only talking about choices when something goes wrong. Most of your references should be to green choices you see.
Frequently Asked Questions
What age is this approach best for?
Green and red choices fit preschool, Pre-K and kindergarten well because the idea is visual and concrete. The two levels in the practice pages let you include children who are not yet reading alongside early readers and writers.
Won't talking about red choices make children do them more?
Keep the red choice brief and always pair it with the green choice. Most of your time and energy should go to teaching, practicing and noticing green choices. The red card is only there to make the contrast clear.
How many choices should I teach in a week?
Two or three new green choices a week is plenty for most young classes. Review earlier choices often. The 4-week study plan in the set gives a structure you can follow or adapt.
What if a child makes the same red choice every day?
Look for patterns in when and where it happens, and think about what skill or need might be behind it. Talk with the family and your support team. Keep teaching and practicing the green partner, and notice every time the child uses it.
Can I use this for one child or only for the whole class?
Both. Whole-class lessons give everyone a shared language. Sticker charts, the weekly home-school tracker and positive notes home can support individual children who need more practice.
How do the scenario cards work?
There are 16 What Would You Do? scenario cards. Read one aloud and ask children what a green choice would be. Then act it out with puppets or volunteers. They work well at circle time or in small groups.
The Bottom Line
Children learn what to do when someone shows them, gives them a chance to practice and notices when they get it right. Green and red choices give young learners a simple picture of that, and give adults a shared, positive language for teaching it. If you want cards, posters, practice pages, scenario cards and home connection tools ready for a four-week start, the Choose Green Behavior Choices puts them together for preschool, Pre-K and kindergarten.
