With social and emotional learning being a focus in education, teachers are always looking for fun and creative ways to incorporate SEL into their daily lessons. In this blog we will explore how the Sphero robot can not only be used to teach code, but be a key player in social and emotional learning.

Tossing around emotions

This first activity is called “Tossing Around Emotions.” In this activity, students code the LED screen on the Bolt to reflect an image, animation, or color to represent how they are feeling, or in response to a situation. When the Bolt is tossed, it activates the code to change the LED screen. This is a great way for students to safely express their emotions or start a conversation.

Check out the “Tossing around emotions” activity plan here.

Sharing emotions 

The next activity is an extension to the above activity. The students will still program Bolt’s LED screen to change when tossed, but then they will pass that message to another bolt. So cool!

Check out the “Sharing Emotions” activity plan here.

A maze of emotions 

The activity “A Maze of Emotions” can be done two different ways. This first is to create a maze and place scenarios at different points around the maze. The students can then drive or code their Bolt to the scenarios and change the LED screen to reflect their reaction. Another way to do this if space is limited, is to have the students pick a scenario out of a hat, or have the teacher read them aloud and the students change the LED screen accordingly.

Check out the “A maze of emotions” activity plan here.

Emotional check-ins with Sphero 

The last activity I want to share with you is for emotional check-ins with Sphero. Have a Sphero set up and the SpheroEdu app open to the Drive mode. The students can then change the color of the LED screen (or the Sphero if you have the SPRK+), on the color wheel to reflect how they are feeling. This can be done as the students are arriving in your classroom, or as a check-in throughout the day.

Make sure to check out the Social and Emotional Learning with Sphero course on OTIS for educators as well as the course on Sphero Bolt Basics.

For more tips, tricks, and tools for teaching in and out of the classroom, check out more articles on the Teq Talk blog.

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