Wonder Media, the animation studio co-founded by the former CEO of Klasky Csupo, the studio that incubated The Simpsons and Rugrats, is offering free WonderGrove Social Skills instructional animations to U.S. educators. The instructional animations that address critical thinking, problem solving and promote connectedness; are titled “Know How to Handle Bullying” and “Always Tell the Truth.” This is the first time these lessons have been offered without cost.
The suite of 225 lessons inspire children to form emotional attachments with animated characters stimulating effortless learning. WonderGrove Social Skills has been implemented in more than 23,000 classrooms nationwide and the studio forecasts that number to double in 2020. The two free lessons will be available December 20, 2019 here. This is one of them:
The WonderGrove Social Skills animations were developed to inspire every child to realize his or her full potential before third grade. The lessons are built around the six critical areas of early learning that impact a child’s ability to succeed: social emotional learning, problem solving, classroom behavior, wellness, critical thinking and metacognitive thinking. The initiative uses animated stories to model life skills that can be used inside and outside of the classroom at a time in a child’s life when they are most impressionable and are developing crucial habits that will impact their futures.
“This has been my life’s work. I know the power of animation: both in its ability to communicate complex ideas simply and concisely, and its power to model appropriate behavior for children because of the way connect to the characters,” said Wonder Media CEO, Terry Thoren. “Telling the truth when it is difficult and being kind are skills that will shape a child’s entire future, relationships, career and world. The Centers for Disease Control suggest early implementation of social emotional learning skills in order to help lower incidents of suicide, the second leading cause of death amongst those aged 10-24.”
WonderGrove Social Skills features five animated characters Chris, Dee, Maria, Marcus and Peter, who are in 2nd grade and model appropriate behaviors in clever stories to connect with students in a profound way. WonderGrove Social Skills are available to educators in English, Spanish and Arabic.
About: Wonder Media is an animation production studio in Los Angeles, California producing animated stories to connect with children at risk with content that addresses hunger, emergency preparedness, social-emotional learning, critical thinking, autism, nutrition, children with disabilities and children living in a home with an addicted adult. The studio has produced animated lessons for the Global Institute for Habits of Mind, the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center Foundation, the Betty Ford Children’s Center, the Hero in You Foundation, the Gabe Alvarado Foundation, the NALC Food Drive, The Boy Scouts of America, the The Girl Scouts of America and the Wyland Water Foundation. Wonder Media is also the creator of WonderGrove Story Maker, which turns classrooms into state-of-the-art animation production studios. Research shows that when students use authentic production tools the experience ignites reading and writing engagement. Story Maker is in 172 school districts in 24 states nationwide.
