It’s Hard to Be a Verb Book Read Aloud Impulse Control Worksheets & Activities is a structured companion for It’s Hard to Be a Verb! by Julia Cook. Designed for students in 2nd–5th grade, it helps students understand impulsivity, develop self-control, and practice strategies for focusing and managing their actions.

This resource includes impulse control worksheets and activities, self-control worksheets, reflection pages, and executive-functioning practice. Students learn how to notice when their bodies or thoughts are moving quickly, pause before responding, and choose strategies that help them participate more successfully.

Part of a Collection of SEL Read Alouds

This resource is part of a growing collection of SEL read alouds that combine meaningful picture books with explicit social-emotional and literacy instruction. Each read-aloud gives students a relatable character and situation they can examine before connecting the lesson to their own experiences.

These character education read aloud activities allow teachers to discuss impulsivity, movement, and attention without singling out an individual student. The accompanying character education book activities then provide structured opportunities to practice self-awareness, decision-making, and self-control.

Understanding the Skills Underneath Impulsive Behavior

Students who interrupt, leave their seats, touch materials, rush through work, or act before thinking may appear to know the expectation but ignore it. In many cases, the missing skill is not knowledge. The student may need support with inhibition, attention, body awareness, or recognizing the moment when a pause is needed.

Repeated reminders may temporarily redirect a student, but they do not always build independence. Students need direct instruction in noticing their impulses, selecting a strategy, and evaluating whether that strategy helped.

This resource was created to support that instruction.

Using a relatable picture book and guided discussion, this interactive read-aloud companion helps students understand why focusing and controlling impulses can be difficult. Students explore practical strategies without treating movement, ADHD, or executive-functioning differences as character flaws.

Why Teachers Use This Resource

This companion helps teachers:

• Teach impulse control and self-control in a concrete, age-appropriate way
• Support students who struggle with attention, movement, or acting before thinking
• Provide structured impulse control activities
• Introduce strategies that may be helpful for students with ADHD
• Help students notice when they need movement or another support
• Build self-awareness and personal responsibility
• Reduce dependence on repeated adult reminders
• Encourage positive behavior choices
• Reinforce ELA skills while targeting SEL and executive-functioning needs
• Differentiate instruction using varied activities and levels

What’s Included

This 96-page resource contains more than 40 differentiated activities designed for flexible use. Teachers can select the pages that best match their students’ needs without having to complete the entire resource.

The variety allows you to:

• Differentiate for student readiness and ability levels
• Use the resource across several days or weeks
• Assign activities during whole-group, small-group, center, or independent instruction
• Revisit impulse control without repeating the same task
• Select targeted pages for counseling, behavior support, or executive-functioning groups

Interactive Read-Aloud Lesson Plan

The included lesson plan provides:

• Before-, during-, and after-reading questions
• Structured discussion prompts
• Opportunities to predict, explain, and reflect
• Connections between the story and real classroom experiences
• Guidance for discussing movement, attention, impulses, and self-control

Impulse Control Worksheets and Activities

The impulse control activities help students recognize situations in which they may act before considering what could happen next. Students examine classroom and social scenarios, identify the impulse, and practice inserting a pause between what they want to do and what they choose to do.

The impulse control worksheets give students structured opportunities to reflect on triggers, body signals, possible outcomes, and alternative responses. Students learn that impulse control does not mean never feeling an urge to move, speak, or act. It means becoming more aware of that urge and choosing how to respond.

Self-Control and Self-Regulation

The self-control worksheets help students identify strategies they can use when sitting still, waiting, listening, or completing a task feels difficult. Possible supports may include movement, self-talk, visual reminders, breaking work into smaller parts, or asking appropriately for help.

Related learning self regulation activities help students determine which strategies are useful in different situations. The goal is not to make every student look equally still or quiet. The goal is to help students manage their needs in ways that allow them and the people around them to learn.

Focus, Attention, and Executive Functioning

Focusing is not one simple skill. It involves directing attention, ignoring distractions, remembering what to do, monitoring progress, and returning to the task when attention shifts.

Students use the activities to consider what makes focusing easier or harder for them. They practice choosing tools that match the situation rather than assuming that one strategy will work every time. These supports may be especially useful for students with ADHD or other executive-functioning needs, but they can benefit any student who is learning to manage attention and impulses.

These focus and self-regulation pages can also be used as ADHD worksheets & activities when students need direct instruction and practice with attention, impulse control, and managing movement.

Choices, Consequences, and Responsibility

The choices and consequences activities help students examine how acting impulsively may affect learning, safety, trust, and relationships. Students consider both the immediate result of a choice and what may happen afterward.

Positive behavior choices activities provide practice identifying alternatives without shaming students for struggling. Students learn that understanding why a behavior happened does not remove accountability. It helps them identify the skill or support they need to make a different choice next time.

Social Emotional Learning Skills

Students practice:

• Understanding impulses and behavior
• Recognizing body signals connected to impulsivity
• Developing impulse control
• Building self-control
• Improving attention and focus
• Identifying helpful movement and regulation strategies
• Pausing before acting or speaking
• Returning attention to a task
• Asking appropriately for support
• Taking responsibility for actions
• Making positive behavior choices

ELA Skills

Students also practice:

• Making predictions
• Summarizing
• Analyzing characters and their choices
• Comparing and contrasting
• Explaining cause and effect
• Making text-to-self connections
• Responding to writing prompts

Additional Supports

The resource includes:

• Notes to families with practical ideas for supporting attention and self-regulation at home
• Real photographs to strengthen student connection and understanding
• Differentiated reflection and application activities
• Materials that can be revisited without repeating the same assignment

How Teachers Use This Resource

Teachers can use these character education book activities during:

• Whole-group interactive read-aloud lessons
• Small-group SEL or executive-functioning instruction
• School counseling groups
• Centers or independent work
• Behavior-support or intervention programs
• Self-contained classroom instruction
• Individual support for students who struggle with impulsivity or attention

About the Book

In It’s Hard to Be a Verb! by Julia Cook, Louis struggles with frequent movement and difficulty focusing, which can leave him feeling frustrated and misunderstood. With support from his teacher and mother, he begins learning strategies for managing his energy and improving his self-control.

The story provides a relatable way to help students understand impulsivity and attention differences. It can also build empathy among classmates by showing that a student who is moving, interrupting, or becoming distracted may be working on skills that require direct teaching and practice.

Bottom Line

If your students struggle with impulsivity, attention, movement, or staying on task, this resource provides a structured way to teach the skills underneath those challenges.

Through SEL read alouds, impulse control worksheets and activities, self-regulation practice, and positive behavior choices activities, students learn strategies for managing their actions with greater awareness and independence.

Curious for More?

Discover your next impactful and engaging interactive read aloud & book companion available here, each carefully crafted to ignite student growth on multiple fronts.

Learn More: Interactive Readalouds for SEL and Literacy Skills

Discover the power of an interactive read aloud in promoting social-emotional learning (SEL) and literacy skills in children.

Whether you’re a teacher or a caregiver, learn how an interactive read aloud can positively transform young lives with this blog post: Interactive Read Alouds: How to Use Them to Promote SEL and Literacy Skills.

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