Starting kindergarten can be a scary thing. For many students, this will be their first time attending elementary school. Kindergarteners may need extra encouragement to feel comfortable and welcome in the kindergarten classroom. If you’re looking for a few words of encouragement to share with your kindergarten students throughout the year, you may be looking for some inspiring kindergarten quotes to display in your classroom. Many famous figures are known for their clever quips, such as Abraham Lincoln, Maya Angelou, Dr. Seuss, and even Oprah Winfrey! But another inspirational figure with several wonderful classroom quotes for kindergarten is Albert Einstein.
Albert Einstein was a physicist widely considered to be one of the greatest of all time. He is a Nobel prize recipient and has made numerous valuable contributions to the scientific community. As you can imagine, he was quite intelligent! Einstein is also known for many motivational quotes and sayings, many of which can be inspirational for students and teachers alike. Chinese proverbs have nothing on Einstein! These great teacher quotes are great to keep in your back pocket to encourage students, improve your teaching, or even decorate your classroom with. Here are 22 of our favorite quotes by Einstein to use in your kindergarten classroom.
Albert Einstein Classroom Quotes for Kindergarten Students
1. “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”
What it means: Mistakes are a normal part of the learning process. Anytime we try new things, we should expect to make mistakes! That’s how we grow and learn.
How to encourage your kindergarteners: The students learn many new skills in kindergarten, and mistakes are bound to happen! Kindergarteners are often anxious about making mistakes, so sharing this quote – one of Einstein’s most inspiring quotes – may help inspire your students never to be afraid to make mistakes. Even more important than the quote, however, is the classroom environment. Allow this classroom quote for kindergarten to inspire you, the kindergarten teacher, to create a classroom environment where your students feel safe enough to try new things and make mistakes without judgment or shame.
2. “It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s that I stay with problems longer.”
What it means: Being “smart” is less important than persevering and being able to work through problems. Problems will always come up; the ability to stick with them is what matters most.
How to encourage your kindergarteners: It can be easy for small children to get discouraged when they run into problems. They may even make statements like, “I can’t do it!” or “I’m not smart enough.” Finding the right words to say to our students who feel this way can be challenging. This inspirational quote will help remind your students that problems are a part of life – especially a child’s life – and that they can do amazing things if they only stick with it until they find a solution.
3. “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its reason for existing.”
What it means: Ask questions! Asking questions and showing curiosity is one of the best ways to learn new things and form new ideas.
How to encourage your kindergarteners: Curiosity is a beautiful thing! Always encourage your students to ask questions and be curious. Sometimes young students can be hesitant to ask questions, so consider changing your language when asking if there are any questions. For example, stating, “What questions do you have?” instead of “Does anyone have a question?” shows students that you expect questions.
4. “Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.”
What it means: Everyone has limitations; no one can do everything! To work past your limitations, you must first realize them and accept them. Once you have done that, you can figure out how to work around your limitations instead of constantly getting stuck on them.
How to encourage your kindergarteners: Share this classroom quote for kindergarten with your students struggling with something they think they aren’t good at. Assure them that no one is good at everything, and that’s okay! Please encourage them to be creative and try to figure out how to overcome their challenges.
5. “Try not to become a man of success, but a man of value.”
What it means: Academic success isn’t everything – character is the most important thing.
How to encourage your kindergarteners: When your students run into an academic challenge, remind them of what matters. Please encourage them to stick with the challenge, as perseverance is a valuable lesson to be learned. Look for specific character traits you admire in each kindergartener, and share those traits with them when they feel discouraged or down.
6. “Most people say that it is the intellect that makes a great scientist. They are wrong; it is character.”
What it means: Certain character traits like perseverance, curiosity, teachability, humility, and patience are essential to be a great scientist – even more important than the knowledge or skill required.
How to encourage your kindergarteners: Remind your students that knowledge and skill can take time to acquire, and that’s a normal part of learning. But they will get there much faster with the character traits mentioned above. Point out which of those traits you see them doing well and assure them that you know they will succeed because of that.
7. “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
What it means: Life keeps moving, and we must, too! When we get caught up too much in the past or stuck on a current problem, we miss out on many beautiful things life offers.
How to encourage your kindergarteners: When your students face a challenge or get stuck on a past mistake, remind them that this is only one minor hiccup and that it is no big deal in the grand scheme of things. Encourage them to learn from the experience, keep moving forward, and enjoy all the things that are still to come.
8. “Creativity is intelligence having fun.”
What it means: Creativity is often dismissed as unimportant or requiring any actual intelligence, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth! Creativity is a sign of intelligence.
How to encourage your kindergarteners: Allow them opportunities to be creative, and remind them that creativity is just as important a part of learning as studying. This process will encourage your students to have a little bit of fun while learning and give your more imaginative students plenty of opportunities to succeed.
9. “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”
What it means: Curiosity and asking questions will get you far in life. Success does not require a particular skill, only a willingness and desire to learn.
How to encourage your kindergarteners: Share this quote with them when they feel they aren’t good enough or don’t have the skill required to complete a particular task. If they are willing to learn and figure it out, they will quickly find their way in life and find that they can do anything they want!
10. “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”
What it means: Being able to adapt when things change is an important quality! Life always throws us curve balls, and how we handle those changes says a lot about us.
To encourage your kindergarteners: This is a great quote to discuss with your students on the first day of kindergarten. Kindergarteners are going through a lot of change. For many, this is their first time going to school! It can be a lot to process and take in. Share this quote with your students to encourage them that while it’s normal to adjust to change, learning how to deal with change is an important skill and will help them adjust better in the future!
11. “What is right is not always popular, and what is popular is not always right.”
What it means: Going with the popular opinion is not always the right thing to do.
How to encourage your kindergarteners: Peer pressure can be rough, and kindergarten is often the first time children are exposed to it. While it may not be a huge problem at this young age, students must start learning that something isn’t correct just because everyone else is doing it. Remind them of this quote if students struggle with doing the right thing because it isn’t what they want to do or they are afraid of what others think.
12. “You never fail until you stop trying.”
What it means: Failure isn’t making mistakes; failure is giving up.
How to encourage your kindergarteners: This is another quote you may want to add to your arsenal of the first day of school quotes! Throughout the year, when a student feels like a failure because they made a mistake, aren’t making excellent grades, or don’t understand an assignment, remind them that they haven’t failed yet – as long as they keep trying! Use this quote to set strong expectations of perseverance right off the bat.
13. “Genius is 1% talent and 99% hard work.”
What it means: Talent is only a small part of success. The most important part is putting in the time and effort to reach your goals.
How to encourage your kindergarteners: Share this quote with them and explain that it means that hard work is far more important than how smart or talented they are. Even if they don’t feel they are naturally good at something, they can still be successful with a little effort and perseverance.
14. “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
What it means: The things worth doing often come with challenges, but if you can overcome those challenges, you will often find tremendous opportunities on the other side!
How to encourage your kindergarteners: To illustrate the message of this quote, invite your students to imagine hiking up a mountain. The hike can often be long and tiring, maybe even with a few roadblocks on the way (like fallen branches or steep cliffs to climb). But at the top of the mountain awaits breathtaking views. If they had turned around and stopped the hike when it got too difficult, they would never have experienced the beauty that was waiting for them at the top of the mountain. Life works much the same way; when faced with challenges, we have the opportunity to overcome those challenges and reap the reward waiting for us on the other side.
15. “The best way to cheer yourself is to cheer somebody else up.”
What it means: Serving others is far more fulfilling than serving yourself.
How to encourage your kindergarteners: This is a great quote to encourage your students to be kind to each other and look for opportunities to help. You can share your personal story of helping someone in need and how that made you feel to really drive home the point. Invite students to imagine how it would make them feel to know they made someone’s day. Remind them that their words can be a powerful weapon that tears others down or a great tool to build others up. This reminder will help build a culture of others-centeredness in your classroom, and students will learn that when we help each other, we can all have a great time.
16. “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”
Teaching is an important job, and the most important part of that job is to help your students love learning.
How to apply your teaching: Help your students love learning by catering your instruction to them. Meet them where they are at. Find out their interests, and incorporate those into your instruction as much as possible. Differentiate your instruction to reach all your learners. Be creative, and allow your students to be creative, too!
17. “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”
What it means: Knowledge is important but can only get you so far. Imagination allows you to dream big, realize what you don’t know, and seek the knowledge you need to achieve those dreams.
Applying it to your teaching: Encourage your students to be creative and use their imagination! Allow opportunities for creative play and assignments. Not only will this inspire them, but it will also give your students who struggle more with academics a chance to be successful.
18. “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
What it means: Simplicity is key. Taking the easy way out can lead to problems, but being as efficient as possible is always smart.
How to apply it to your teaching: Don’t overcomplicate things! Kindergarten should be fun and exciting; students will lose interest if things are too difficult. While you don’t want to make things so easy that students aren’t learning anything, incorporating rich classroom activities that naturally make sense to kindergarteners will make your life easier and your students more successful. Learning through play and breaking concepts down in a developmentally appropriate way is key.
19. “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”
What it means: Just because you attended school doesn’t mean you have a real education! Many students only remember the concepts taught in school if they use them constantly. Education is more than just a lecture; it is the regular practice and honing of skills.
How to apply it to your teaching: Provide lots of opportunities for your students to practice the concepts they’ve learned. Formal education is important, but ensuring students are using the knowledge they’re learning is what will make the most significant impact. Spiraling instruction – incorporating previously taught concepts into current instruction – is a great way to help ensure that your students remember what they’ve learned. Helping your students make real-world connections to what they are learning is also a great way to ensure that they buy into their learning and remember it long-term.
20. “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
What it means: Albert Einstein was a big believer in the role that creativity and imagination play in intelligence. Reading young children fairy tales is one way to expand children’s imaginations.
How to apply to your teaching: Read your students fairy tales! Scientific research on fairy tales has found many benefits to reading fairy tales, including improved imagination, enriched vocabulary, better focus, and increased analytical power. There are social-emotional benefits as well!
21. “If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.”
What it means: If you truly understand something, you should be able to explain it to anyone – even a six-year-old!
How to apply to your teaching: While this may seem like one of Einstein’s many funny quotes, it’s pretty profound when you think about it! Use this quote as a reminder to reflect on your teaching. If your kindergarteners aren’t getting it, you must dig deeper into the subject yourself.
22. “I speak to everyone the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.”
What it means: Never talk down to anyone, regardless of status or vocation. Every human being is equally valuable.
How to apply it to your teaching: Remember that your students are young, but they are people too. It can be easy to talk down to these young people – even unintentionally – because we are adults, and they are children. But they are just as valuable as we are and don’t deserve to be talked down to. Ultimately, it will make our jobs easier as students learn to trust us more if we treat them like little humans.
There are many valuable life lessons from these Einstein classroom quotes for kindergarten. These 22 inspirational school quotes will make a lasting impact on your students. From the first to the last day of school and kindergarten graduation, and even as your students move on to first grade, the lessons learned from these quotes will stick with them. Which one is your favorite?
