How Do Dinosaurs Say I’m Mad? Book Review and Lessons
How Do Dinosaurs Say I’m Mad?
Jane Yolen and Mark Teague
My grade three students loved this book as I read it aloud to them today. The illustrations are amazing and they sparked many conversations and much laughter.
My grade three students loved this book as I read it aloud to them today. The illustrations are amazing and they sparked many conversations and much laughter.
This book helps identify how the dinosaur characters (inappropriately) manage their anger and it identifies new skills for managing anger more appropriately. The story plays out the many different ways that the characters might say that they are mad, such as slamming doors, ignoring their parents, or pretending they don’t care. The funny thing is these actions happen every day at home and at school. The children can identify in a humorous way with the dinosaur behavior or at least express when they have seen this behavior with a sibling!
The book ends by showing more appropriate ways the dinosaur could show his feelings, as well as showing how he heals relationships he has compromised.
We know that as children’s emotional vocabularies grow, their ability to accurately read their own and others’ emotions grows too! These skills must be taught. Students can build a toolbox to deal with anger in healthy ways. You often need tools to be successful and a lot of practice too!
Activities:
- Parents: You can do the activity below and put it up in your child’s room.
- For the adventurous artist types: I once painted a huge mural in my son’s room with the Berenstain Bears doing all sorts of loving things. He helped me sketch it out and paint it in. We would look at it at night and tell stories. He is now 16 and he still talks about it with a smile, although it is now covered with paint and posters!
Classroom
- Divide a large paper in half. Have students draw their own frustrated dinosaur doing something inappropriate or harmful to manage its emotions. Then on the other side draw the same dinosaur full of bright ideas on how to manage anger. (You can also pre-draw the dinosaur or even one side of the paper. My students love to draw so I give them a choice.)
- Create spinner for inside individual desks or a large one for the wall. Have alternatives to inappropriate or hurtful ways to express anger on the spinner sections. These might include
- Go for a walk
- Count to 10
- Breathe deeply
- Yell into a pillow
- Take a break
- Talk to a friend or adult
- Do 10 jumping jacks
http://www.amazon.ca/How-Do-Dinosaurs-Say-Mad/dp/0545143152
