SEL Lesson Planner: Pineapple Friends Educator Toolkit

Save time and engage learners through character-driven stories! Build custom problem solving, social emotional learning (SEL) plans for K–5 learners—perfect for classrooms, families, & homeschool.

Comment

Inspiration

As the convener of Impactathon® and founder of Innov8social, I’ve spent years helping individuals and groups use business models to create positive impact through social entrepreneurship.

But I began to wonder: how do we introduce these ideas to learners even earlier? That question inspired the creation of the Pineapple Friends® children’s book series—a fun, engaging way to empower kids to become problem solvers.

We built this platform to help educators and families use character-driven stories to teach social-emotional learning (SEL), empathy, problem-solving, and critical thinking.

Many teachers and parents told us they loved the books but needed a simple, easy-to-use way to turn them into lessons—tailored to different age groups, learning settings (classrooms, homeschools, families, camps), time constraints, and learners’ needs.

We were inspired to build a toolkit that empowers educators to save time, engage learners through story, and customize SEL learning for every child.

What it does

SEL Lesson Planner: Pineapple Friends Educator Toolkit helps educators and families quickly design custom lesson plans focused on SEL, problem-solving, and critical thinking for K–5 learners.

Educators log in, answer a few questions about their learners and teaching context, and instantly receive a customized plan pulling from our curated library of activities, discussion prompts, and worksheets—all inspired by Pineapple Friends books and characters.

It’s designed to make story-driven SEL learning simple, engaging, and accessible for any teaching environment.

We also integrated narrated story options using ElevenLabs, bringing Pineapple Friends stories to life with diverse voice options that enhance accessibility and engagement.

How we built it

We built this MVP in Bolt.new, combining the depth of our existing book series with the speed of no-code development. We focused on delivering real, testable value during the Bolt hackathon using premium Bolt features:

  • User authentication for educators and families
  • A clean dashboard with options to design lesson plans, access resources, and chat with Allie (our AI character agent)
  • A multi-step lesson planning form capturing age group, time available, teaching context, and learner needs
  • Google Sheets integration for dynamic filtering of our pre-tagged activity library
  • Custom output pages displaying tailored lesson plans instantly
  • Static resource pages with easy links to worksheets, videos, and additional materials
  • ElevenLabs integration to generate narrated story audio in multiple, diverse voices
  • RevenueCat mobile SDK and Paywall Builder to enable easy subscription management within a future Bolt.new mobile app version
  • Supabase to lay the groundwork for scalable user and content management as our platform grows

We kept our focus on core value: making custom SEL lesson planning easy, accessible, and story-driven for any educator or family.

Challenges we ran into

Our biggest challenge was scoping an ambitious vision into something achievable in just 48 hours.

We wanted to include forums, video libraries with read-aloud options, user-generated resource sharing, and advanced AI coaching—but had to prioritize what delivered immediate, testable value.

We also navigated the complexity of structuring our activity database to filter by age, time, SEL theme, and accessibility adaptations while keeping the user experience clean and simple.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Translating Pineapple Friends story content into a usable, teacher-friendly digital tool
  • Designing an inclusive experience suitable for classrooms, homeschools, family learning, and camps
  • Building a real, working MVP in under 48 hours that actually saves educators time
  • Integrating ElevenLabs narration for richer, more inclusive story delivery
  • Preparing for growth with RevenueCat for in-app subscriptions and Supabase for scalable backend support
  • Creating a strong foundation that’s easy to expand with new activities, resources, and features

What we learned

We learned the immense value of listening to educators and users: customization, inclusivity, and time savings are top priorities.

We also discovered the power of no-code tools like Bolt.new for rapidly prototyping usable products, and the importance of carefully structuring content to make it dynamic and accessible.

Most importantly, we were reminded that even with limited time and resources, you can build something that genuinely empowers teachers and supports kids’ social-emotional growth.

What's next for SEL Lesson Planner: Pineapple Friends Educator Toolkit

We plan to continue development beyond the hackathon by:

  • Expanding our activity and resource library with additional books, worksheets, and videos
  • Adding a discussion forum for educators to share experiences and tips
  • Enabling user-generated content uploads
  • Integrating video and audio read-alouds with multiple accents and languages using ElevenLabs
  • Building AI-powered feedback and coaching tools for lesson planning
  • Using RevenueCat to manage mobile app subscriptions and offer tiered access to premium resources
  • Leveraging Supabase for scalable user management, database functionality, and secure storage
  • Enabling automations (e.g., via Zapier) for email delivery of custom lesson plans, CRM integration, and advanced workflows
  • Offering customization for diverse learning needs, including neurodivergent and multilingual learners

Ultimately, our goal is to make SEL and problem-solving education accessible, engaging, and customizable for all K–5 learners, anywhere.

Built With

  • bolt.new
  • canva
  • elevenlabs
  • entri
  • google-sheets
  • openai
  • revenuecat
  • supabase
Share this project:

Updates