Step Into My Sessions: Do you have fans of Maca & Roni in your caseload?

I have multiple social learning groups who can't get enough of these two cuties! Maca & Roni, by Kyungmin Woo

I don’t know about you, but, due to my efforts, I have social groups in my caseload who don’t consider our session finished until they have watched an episode of Maca & Roni. 👀

There are so many terrific animations to choose from. 🎞️ I hope you have discovered them, and that your kids love them as much as mine do. And, more importantly, use them to explore important social learning concepts and feelings!

Recently, I have been having students work together to rank their favorites in certain categories that I propose. It’s become a way of starting group off with a bang! 💥 After all, this requires lots of conversation, collaboration, negotiation, and regulation. Love it! 😍

Here’s one from last week. The category was “competitiveness”:

I questioned them about their top pic – Cactus Party. 🌵 They were adamant about their selection. So, we watched, discussed, and realized…there really wasn’t ANY competitiveness, actually this animation was filled with collaboration. The good news is, we had the opportunity to really drill down into both of these abstract concepts!

Following up, the next week our concept was “collaboration”:

Another great set – with some to discuss and clarify.

The list that generated the most opinions, and therefore engagement was “all-time favorites”:

It was interesting to watch the discussions. 💭

At times, the students who tend to be the quietest in the group really spoke up, advocating for their choices. 📢 The structure of the activity, as well as their love of the animations, allowed them to take risks that they typically might avoid.

Students who might tend toward rigidity were willing to move their favorites down in the list to accommodate the explanations of others – they changed their minds! All in all, these activities were winners on multiple points. 🏆

If you try any of these, share your lists – I’m curious about what might be the same and what might be different. We have budding animation critics in our midst!
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Hope your week is filled with sunshine of one kind or another! ☀️