Flippa
cognitive flexibility (switch the rule)
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Flippa was a chameleon who loved to change. Green on a leaf, brown on a branch, pink on a flower — flip, flip, flip! Changing was her favorite thing.
But there was one kind of change that felt tricky, even for Flippa: changing a rule in the middle of a game.
The friends played the sorting game. "Put the red things here, the blue things there," said Mem. Easy! Flippa sorted every card by its color, quick as a wink.
Her body was all set for the color rule. Color, color, color.
Then Mem said the magic words: "New rule! Now sort by SHAPE — circles here, squares there."
Uh-oh. Flippa's brain still wanted to sort by color. She almost put the red circle in the color pile. She had to stop and flip — like changing her skin, but inside her head.
"When the rule changes," Flippa told Hopp, "I take a tiny breath and think: what are we doing NOW? Then I flip." She turned a lovely shade of purple to show it.
Sorting by shape got easier each time. Flip to the new rule. Flip. Flip.
At the end, Mem switched the rule three times in a row — color, shape, color! — and Flippa flipped along with every one, giggling.
"You're a rule-flipper!" laughed Hopp.
Flippa glowed a happy gold. The switch had felt so bumpy at first, like tripping over her own feet. But now flipping her mind felt just like flipping her colors: a little surprise she could do on purpose. And that felt bright and free.
The ReadyRoos ensemble
Flippa is part of ReadyRoos's distributed-narrative cast. Each character embodies a different curricular primitive; together they teach the full subject.
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Hopp
Inhibitory control (hero) — a bouncy kangaroo who hops on 'go!' and freezes stock-still on 'stop!'; the wait-then-act IS self-control
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Mem
Working memory — a kind elephant who holds a little string of things in mind and brings them back after a pause
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Stepp
Planning / goal-holding — a busy beaver who lays the stepping-stones in order before crossing; planning the steps IS staying on task
