Learn About Careers with Flo!
For elementary school students, the thought of having to choose one career to do for the rest of their lives can seem preposterous. Luckily, they still have years before they need to decide. At their age, the important thing is to open their minds to the many possibilities available to them. Our Learn About Careers with Flo game is a great way to do just that. There are a variety of ways to play, depending on what you and your child want to focus on.
How to Play
Once you download the tool, there are a number of ways to play.
- Start by printing and cutting out the career, description, and forbidden words cards.
- Keep the career exploration sheet handy.
Guessing game
- Place the career cards in front of you on the table.
- Take turns drawing a description card and reading it to the other player.
- The other player has to point to the career card matching the career you’ve described.
- You can take the game a step further by asking your child to place the career card in one of the three columns on the career exploration sheet. Ask them questions to encourage even more self-reflection.
- Continue the game with another description card.
Memory game
Once your child has mastered the various careers and their descriptions, you can use the cards to play a memory game.
- Differentiate between career and description cards by marking them differently on the back. For example, add different coloured dots or shapes, or simply write career and description on them.
- Place the cards face down on the table.
- Taking turns, flip over one career card and one description card. The objective is to find the right match.
- Once you do, remove both cards from play. If you don’t get the right match, leave the cards in play and try to remember their position.
Forbidden words game
This activity is inspired by the game Taboo. Using the same list of 20 careers, one player describes a career without using any of the forbidden words on the card, and the others try to guess which one it is. Not only is this game a great way to work on oral communication skills, it also requires creativity to describe the career in a clear but original way.
For a multiplayer version, split into teams and keep score, setting a time limit to keep things moving along.
Career Discussion Prompts to Spark Meaningful Self-Reflection
Whether you’re using the career exploration sheet or playing the game, try asking your child about their interests, without pressuring them to answer, to gain a better understanding of who they are and encourage them to think about what they truly enjoy.
Here are a few ideas:
- Would you like to become a/an __________?
- What qualities do you think it takes to become _________?
- What else would you like to know about this job?
- What is it about this job that doesn’t appeal to you at all?
- Is there another job you’d be interested in that isn’t in this game?