We Thinkers! Volume 2 - Social Problem Solvers Deluxe Package

About the We Thinkers! Volume 2 Social Problem Solvers Package

Download the Family Letter and At-Home Activities after purchasing to introduce you to Volume 2 and support your child's learning at home.

The highly acclaimed We Thinkers! series helps children build fundamental social competencies and improve their social and academic performance. Teachers, clinicians, and parents give it rave reviews! Award Winning We Thinkers! Volume 2 Social Problem Solvers provides the structure, curriculum, storybooks, and support materials to teach executive functioning and social problem solving while building on the core social concepts and Social Thinking Vocabulary introduced in We Thinkers! Volume 1 Social Explorers.

The five Social Thinking concepts featured in Volume 2—figuring out hidden rules and expected and unexpected behavior, making a smart guess, having flexible versus stuck thinking, matching the size of a reaction to the size of a problem, and sharing imagination—continue the trajectory toward social emotional learning. In Volume 2 we help students decipher the social cues to share space, flexibly interact, and regulate emotions during the ever-changing world of play or when sitting quietly in a classroom. Social executive functioning is difficult for both neurotypical and Neurodivergent social learners. It involves surveying a social situation, understanding group behavior, considering others’ perspectives, motives and ideas, thinking flexibility, negotiating roles or turns, and self-regulating to keep emotions and behaviors under control when problems arise. Volume 2 decodes these concepts into small, teachable segments that kids can understand, and presents them in an organized platform from which adults can reliably teach in a step-by-step manner. This is an excellent curriculum for all students ages 4-7 in a general education classroom, in small groups or in one-to-one specialized teaching.

Learn how to teach the series! Explore how to use our We Thinkers! series in our free webinar How to Use Social Thinking Materials to Teach Ages 4-7.

What's Included

Colorful illustrations and playful storybook adventures raise curiosity and imagination and engage children in learning five Social Thinking concepts. Because the concepts are more complex in Volume 2, the authors provide suggestions and page references for teaching the storybooks in segments and include assessment questions to assure understanding of each concept before moving to the next. Each storybook has an introduction for teachers and parents about the highlighted Social Thinking concept and how to use the book. (Note: Professionals should teach using the storybooks and the curriculum together; the storybooks are not stand-alone teaching tools.) Follow along as our four adventuring characters explore new social situations:

• Hidden Rules and Expected and Unexpected Behaviors (Pirate Adventure)
• Smart Guess (Mystery Adventure)
• Flexible and Stuck Thinking (Ice Cream Shop Adventure)
• Size of the Problem (Dinosaur Birthday Party)
• Sharing an Imagination (Park Adventure)

We Thinkers! Volume 2 Social Problem Solvers harnesses the familiar structure of the curriculum units in Volume 1 to support discussion of social concepts, Teaching Moment guidelines, and structured teaching activities that give kids the practice they need. The book opens with a review of the evidence behind the curriculum and discusses social executive functioning, self-regulation, social problem solving, and the skill-building significance of play. The authors also include rubrics for assessing how children are learning the concepts, ideas for goal writing, links to educational standards, and family letters to send home to parents and caregivers.

 Download the Fidelity Checklist

The Social Thinking concepts in Volume 2 aren’t meant to be taught in exactly the same way to every child. Young children play and socially engage with different levels of perspective taking, social awareness, and social problem solving. Introducing our groundbreaking Group Collaboration, Play and Problem Solving (GPS) framework to teach adults how to differentiate instruction and treatment plans as they work through our We Thinkers series.

GPS  leverages the latest research to show how interactive play builds a lifelong foundation for learning, and provides a wealth of new GPS tools that help educators widen their perspective and teach children how to take the social competencies they learn through the storybooks and curriculum units and map them to broader classroom, playground, home, and community interactions. The book introduces our five-level GPS Play Scale and its related observation tools and forms. By identifying a child’s baseline play level, professionals and parents can create tailored interactive play lessons. The second half of the book offers social activities for each play level across each of the five Social Thinking concepts covered in Volume 2. This is where parents and professionals help play truly come alive for kids as they learn to negotiate the more complex social concepts included in the curriculum! Also sold separately.

Authors: Kari Zweber Palmer, Nancy Tarshis, Ryan Hendrix, Michelle Garcia Winner

• Ages: 4-7
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 4011
• Published: 2016