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Social-Emotional Skills and Problem-Solving Curriculum for Ages 4-8
The story of Dina Dinosaurus follows the adventures of a young dinosaur named Dina as she faces problems that teachers or parents can solve using social-emotional strategies. Dina Dinosaurus is a lovable and entertaining dinosaur who lives with her family in a fantastic, prehistoric world.
The Dina Dinosaurus Curriculum has two main aims. It helps to improve children’s social and emotional (S-E) competence by planning and appropriate role-playing behaviors. It also decreases aggressive, oppositional, and hyperactive behaviors through self-control strategies. Children will learn valuable skills in each session.
This curriculum focuses on social play skills, including turn-taking, waiting, asking, and sharing. These skills, called social skills, are helpful in various situations because they will help children make friends and fit in with a group. They are also “play skills” because they are essential in building a foundation for cooperative play with peers.
Educational Therapists and Clinical Psychologists have developed the Dina Dinosaurus Curriculum. The sessions include discussing feelings, identifying personal emotions, problem-solving skills, conflict management approaches, and anger management. They use various hands-on activities, games, and lessons.
The Dina Dinosaurus Curriculum
This section is a brief overview of the training programs in the curriculum. The curriculum, each named after a dinosaur, consists of seven units:
1. The Apatosaurus Unit: Making New Friends and Learning the School Rules
The Apatosaurus is a dinosaur that has been a part of the Dina’s World series since the beginning. The Apatosaurus is not as big or scary as other dinosaurs in the series. He is a friendly creature. His job is to help children learn how to make new friends and how to keep in touch with their new friends.
The Apatosaurus loves rules and helping people follow them, but he doesn’t like it when people break the rules. He knows that if everyone followed the rules, there would be no problems, and everyone would get along well.
The Apatosaurus helps children understand what will happen if they break the rules. It could cause them to get in trouble with their parents or teachers. It can also lead to other children not wanting to play with them anymore because they are mean and hurtful towards others, trying their best to follow their own rules.
The Apatosaurus also helps children understand that friendships take time to develop. Sometimes it might seem like you aren’t making progress with someone else. Still, if you continue trying, things will work out fine.
2. Iguanadon Unit: Learning School Rules
The Iguanadon is a dinosaur that lived about 112 million years ago. It was a plant-eater, had a long tail, and walked on four legs. The Iguanadon grew up to 40 feet long and weighed 1 ton. The Iguanadon has a tiny brain, but it can learn school rules.
Iguanadon is a young dinosaur. He has started kindergarten and is very excited about learning new skills. He is also very nervous about making mistakes in front of his friends and teachers. His parents want him to learn how to learn at school and manage his feelings to succeed in school and at home.
Learning how best to listen, to wait, to avoid interruptions, and put up a soft hand to ask questions in class are essential to success in school. Iguanadon needs help learning these skills to concentrate on what the teacher is saying or doing with another student in the class.
Iguanadon’s parents have been working with him on waiting his turn before talking or asking questions in class. When Iguanadon has something important to say or ask, he must raise his hand and wait for the teacher to acknowledge him before speaking out loud. This skill will help him learn how to listen until called upon by an adult at home and school.
3. Triceratops Unit: Understanding and Detecting Feelings
The Triceratops is a great teaching tool for helping children to understand and detect feelings. Learning words for different feelings.
The Triceratops has an angry face, a sad face, and a happy face. The angry face has a red, grinning mouth with pointed teeth, and the happy face is green with big eyes and a smile. The sad face is blue, with tears coming out of its eyes.
A lot of emotions are difficult to put into words. You might not know how you feel or feel confused, angry, or sad. When children have trouble identifying their feelings, it can be helpful to use pictures and stories to help them express what they’re feeling.
The Triceratops is a great example of how feelings can be challenging for children to put into words. The Triceratops will often come out when kids are very upset or angry but don’t know how to express those feelings.
The Triceratops will allow the child to explore their feelings by helping them identify different emotions in other people. Kids need to recognize different facial expressions and body language to understand what someone else is feeling without directly telling them (or indirectly). These facial expressions will help kids develop empathy and improve their communication skills with others.
4. Stegosaurus Unit: How to Problem Solve
The Stegosaurus method is a way of helping children learn how to solve problems in real-life situations. In these situations, they have no adult present who can help them make decisions or tell them what to do next.
Problem-solving is a skill that children can learn. It is a way of thinking, a way of acting, and a way of behaving. Problem-solving starts when we identify a problem and think about it. It continues through our imagination and creativity to come up with ideas on how to solve it. It ends when we choose one or more solutions as the best one for this particular problem.
Children learn how to solve problems by playing with their friends, talking about their problems, and offering suggestions on how they can solve the problems. Children learn how to negotiate solutions when they are trying to resolve disagreements between themselves. Also, when they are trying to convince others that they are right.
The first step in solving problems is taking the time to identify them. The Stegosaurus could identify when its food was running low by noticing when it was hungry and not getting enough sleep. When the Stegosaurus noticed that it was hungry or tired, it would take steps to fix the problem − by eating more or sleeping longer.
Once we have identified a problem, we must think of possible solutions. The Stegosaurus had many ways of solving its food shortage problem. It could eat other animals, find new food sources, or move somewhere else where more food was available.
The Stegosaurus also had many ways of solving its lack-of-sleep problem. It could go to bed earlier, have more naps during the day, or stay away from predators at night so they wouldn’t wake him up by loud noises.
5. The Tyrannosaurus Rex Unit: Tiny Turtle Teaches Anger Management
Tyrannosaurus Rex is a massive dinosaur who lives in the prehistoric world. He is often angry. But T.Rex has a soft side as well. He needs help learning to cope with his anger and be happy again. Tyrannosaurus Rex can teach us all about managing anger and feeling better on the inside when we are angry on the outside.
Tyrannosaurus Rex’s story can help us recognize when we are feeling angry, upset, or frustrated. It can also help us learn how to deal with these feelings healthy instead of acting them out by hitting, kicking, or hurting someone else.
When other animals tease Tiny Turtle in his class, Tyrannosaurus Rex shows him that it’s okay to feel angry inside but not hurt others because of our anger reactions. Anger makes it hard to think clearly or devise reasonable solutions to problems. When people are angry, they often only see what is wrong with someone else or the situation instead of looking for ways to fix the problem or improve things.
This situation can be especially true for children who may not have had much experience dealing with anger in themselves or others. They may see their anger as a problem but not know how to deal with it. This problem can lead them to act out in ways that cause more harm than good, like hitting or yelling at someone else when they feel angry inside.
Tyrannosaurus Rex teaches us that we must calm down before trying to solve problems. If we are too angry, it will be hard for us to think clearly and make good decisions about solving our problems.
6. The Allosaurus Unit: Molly teaches how to be friendly
Molly the Allosaurus is a friendly dinosaur who teaches children how to be friendly. Molly teaches children how to be friendly by showing them what friendship means, the importance of helping others, and the benefits of sharing. She also shows them how fun it is to work together with friends.
Molly teaches children about friendship by showing them friendship means being there for each other. If a friend is sad or hurt, you make sure she feels better by listening to her and telling her everything will be okay. You also help your friends when they need help because you want them to feel good.
Molly teaches children about helping others by showing them how important it is to help those in need. For example, if someone needs help carrying something heavy like groceries or books, you should offer to help them out so they won’t have to struggle.
Molly teaches children about sharing by giving them an example of what it means to share something with someone else, like toys or food. When you share with others, it helps both people feel good because now each one has something.
7. The Brachiosaurus Unit: Molly explains how to talk with friends
The Brachiosaurus is a friendly dinosaur who wants to teach children about friendship. He shows kids how to play together and enjoy each other’s company.
The Brachiosaurus is big and very friendly. He likes to play with other dinosaurs, but sometimes he gets lonely when they’re all playing together and he’s not invited. The Brachiosaurus has learned that it’s essential to ask questions about things bothering him to meet his needs. He also knows that it’s essential for him not to tell others what to do all the time. Instead, he can ask them what they think about something before deciding.
The Brachiosaurus can help children learn how to make new friends by asking questions like “How old are you?” or “What is your favorite color?” Other kids will find it easier to converse with you when they know more about you than just your name.
The Brachiosaurus also teaches kids how important it is to listen carefully when someone else is talking — especially if it’s someone who matters most in your life.
A Brachiosaurus will also help children understand how and when to give an apology or compliment. They will also show children how to enter into a group already playing together and make a suggestion rather than give commands.
Children may find it challenging to use these new skills because they don’t always come naturally. But by practicing friendship skills over time with your help, children will learn how important it is for everyone in the community.
Final Thoughts
When faced with violence and aggression in young children, parents and teachers may feel overwhelmed, disrespected, stressed, and helpless. Choosing a kids’ curriculum is one of the most yielding aspects of homeschooling. We encourage you to take your time to find the one that fits best with your family.
If you and your child love dinosaurs, this app is worth checking out. The bright colors, fun music, and interactive puzzles will keep your child busy for an hour or two.
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our teacher-reviewed curriculum guide. This article should give you a better idea of what to look for in the following units. Reading curriculum reviews is an essential part of the process.
