As summer winds down, and students get ready to return to school, preparation strategies go into operation. Collecting pencil cases, binders, homework organizers and other tools can help focus students to the academic learning ahead. But, setting students up for success with social interactions and communication with peers and adults in the school setting can be just as important. Floreo has over 60 lessons that apply to school-based success.
For our younger kiddos, Choose Your Greeting is a good place to start working on social interactions with peers. Not only does a Learner practice greeting other young children, but also has opportunities to recognize differences in the mood of the other child. The Chit-Chat series (Chit-Chat with Myra, Chit-Chat with Alejandro, Chit-Chat with Ayanna) really strengthens those conversational skills in our youngest students and further allows for opportunities to recognize how someone might be feeling based on the conversational topic. Pro-social classroom behaviors are also addressed in Floreo for this age. Raise Your Hand - Kindergarten allows students to practice behaviors such as listening for a topic, waiting for your turn to talk in class, letting other kids talk too. A somewhat simpler version of this skill is practiced in Start the Gestures Game where the student says hello to the leader of the group, then raises a hand and waits to be called on. Success with play skills is a critical area at this age. Play skills with other children are addressed in Painting with Friends, Magic Mix: Who’s Next? and Cloud Chronicles: Tales from the Sky.
For our older students, all the lessons in the School Social skill category may apply, but a few are called out here: The hallway based social lessons (for example, Greetings in Motion, Small Talk in Motion) help students with simple greetings and with those very simple hallway conversations that may go by very quickly. Your students can work up to those by starting with the easier versions (for example, Friendly Greeting, Neutral Greeting as well as Intro to Small Talk with May , Intro to Small Talk with Brandon, Intro to Small Talk with Carlos). The cafeteria/park based lessons are excellent for helping Learners tune into their peers in a slightly more casual, but still school related, setting. These include, but are not limited to: Join a Conversation: Cafeteria or Join a Conversation: Park. Classroom-based social skills can be gained from practicing Floreo lessons such as Find a Seat & Get Ready for Class and Raise Your Hand. Students can exercise their listening comprehension skills with VR lessons such as Dolphin, Iguana, Koala, and Lion. Follow up with your students after using these lessons by asking them some questions to find out what they remember. Working in a group is particularly important for school success. While the teamwork lessons were mostly built for transitioning youth and adults, younger teens and tweens may benefit from these too. They include: Teamwork: Cooperative Work, Teamwork: Communication, and Teamwork: Collaboration & Compromise.
Lastly, all students can benefit from a bit of rest & relaxation after working on a new skill. Floreo has a variety of lessons that could help with this, from Find the Fish to Breathing Train to Yoga Poses to Guided Focus for Body Relaxation. And don’t forget the newly released Peaceful Painting! Here’s wishing you a calm, successful, smooth transition to the new school year!