A Visit to the Mesozoic

 Billy was trying to study, when Mandy found him.

"What are you working on, Billy?" Mandy asked.
"I have a test tomorrow," Billy replied, "and I'm trying to learn all these names of dinosaurs (DYE-no-sors). It's really hard!"

Mandy thought Billy looked discouraged. "I have an idea," she said. "Names are hard to learn if you can't see who they are in your head. Let's get the toy dinosaurs out of the toy box and see if we can name them."
Billy closed the book. "That sounds like a good idea," he said.

The two dolls opened the toy box and took out all the dinosaurs. They had all of the ones Billy needed to know. Then they stood on the box and worked together to put all the toy dinosaurs on the windowsill. 

"First," Mandy said, "let me give you a name of a dinosaur and see if you can pick out the right one."

"OK," Billy said. "Let's do it! This is fun. It's like a game."
"The first one is Velociraptor (va-law-sih-RAP-ter)," Mandy said. "Which one is that?"
Billy thought for a few seconds. "I think maybe this one," he said, picking up one of the dinosaurs.

"Very good," Mandy agreed. Now you say his name.
"Velociraptor," Billy said. 
"Good," Mandy agreed. Then she asked him to put the Velociraptor down on the toy box. "Now show me the Styracosaurus (stih-RAK-a-SOR-us)," she said.

Billy had to think again for a bit. "That's the one that looks like the Triceratops (try-SEHR-a-tops), only he has just one horn instead of three," he said, looking at the toy dinosaurs. "It must be this one," he said finally.

"Tell me his name," Mandy said.
"Styracosaurus!" Billy exclaimed. He was beginning to feel better about what he knew.
Then Mandy asked him to show her the Ankylosaurus (ang-kel-o-SORE-us). Billy immediately picked up the toy dinosaur that had rows of spikes down its back.

"What is this one called?" Mandy asked.
"Ankylosaurus!" Billy cried. "I hope I can remember how it's spelled."

"We can work on that, too," Mandy told him.
The dolls did the same thing with all the toy dinosaurs. 

Mandy asked him to find each one, and Billy pointed to or picked up the one he thought she was asking for. If he got the name right, he put it down on the box. If he got it wrong, he left it on the windowsill to try again. He got most of them right the first time.
After a while, Billy counted how many he had named correctly. The number kept going up.

The dolls played the game until there was only one toy left. Mandy said that they should leave that one for now. That toy wasn't in Billy's lesson.
"Now," Mandy suggested, "let's do something a little harder. First we need to put them all back."
The two dolls put all the dinosaurs back on the windowsill.
"Now this time," Mandy explained, "I want you to point to each of the dinosaurs and tell me its name."

Billy pointed to the Ankylosaurus and said it's name correctly.

Mandy told him to take it off the windowsill.
Next he pointed to the Stegosaurus and said, "Stegosaurus."

Mandy nodded to show he was right. Billy took it off the windowsill.

Then he pointed to the Tyrannosaurus (tih-RAN-o-SORE-us) and said its name. When Mandy nodded, Billy took it and put it down on the toy box.

Then he pointed to the Triceratops. "This one is easy," he said. "It's a Triceratops. It's the one with a frill and three horns, and 'tri' means three."

"That's good, Billy!" Mandy exclaimed, as Billy took the Triceratops off the windowsill.

"I think this one is the Argentinosaurus (ar-jen-TEEN-uh-SORE-us)," Billy said, "but I'm not sure." 

"That's right," Mandy agreed. "Some scientists think it's the largest of all the dinosaurs, but it's hard to figure these things out when you have just their bones in rock." she added.

They continued with the game until there was only one toy left.
"Now how about this last one?" Mandy asked.
"I don't know this one," Billy said.

"It's a Dimetrodon (dye-MEH-tro-don)," explained Mandy. "It isn't in your lesson, and it actually doesn't belong in this group. Do you know why?"
Billy looked at the Dimetrodon and thought about it.

"The lesson is about dinosaurs. Maybe it isn't really a dinosaur," Billy said.
"You're right," agreed Mandy. "The Dimetrodon may have been an ancestor of mammals, so not like dinosaurs at all. Also, it came much earlier, during the Permian (PER-me-an) Period, which was in the Paleozoic (PALE-ee-oh-ZOH-ic) Era. Do you know when the dinosaurs lived?"

"Yes," said Billy. "In our lesson, we learned that the dinosaurs appeared during the Triassic (try-ASS-ik) Period, lived through the Jurassic (jer-ASS-ik) Period and then died out during the Cretaceous (kreh-TAY-shus) Period," Billy explained. "All of that time is called the Mesozoic (MEH-so-ZOH-ik) Era. It was millions and millions of years ago. A comet hit the earth and changed the climate. The dinosaurs couldn't live in a changed world."

"You know quite a lot," Mandy told him. "Now let's work on the spelling. Go get your notebook and pencil."
The dolls played a third game. This time, Mandy pointed to a dinosaur, and instead of saying its name, Billy wrote it down in his notebook. 

When they had finished, they checked the spelling of each one and Billy fixed his mistakes.

Then they played the game again. This time he got them all right!

"The rest of what is on the test is easy," Billy said. "It was just remembering the names that I had trouble with. I already knew when the dinosaurs lived and that they became extinct (ex-TINKT) at the end of the Mesozoic Era."

Mandy stood up and looked out the window. "They couldn't learn to live in their new world," she said. "We can learn a lot from the dinosaurs. If we don't learn lots of new things, we won't be ready to change when our lives change."

Billy nodded his agreement. He was beginning to feel good about the test tomorrow. He thanked Mandy for helping him. 
"I'm going to try to learn a lot, so I don't become extinct," Billy said to himself.


Note to parents of preschool children and early readers: There are some big words in this story. Even very young children can start learning the names of dinosaurs. It may not mean much to them the first time, but when they hear the names again later, they will begin to remember them. It's never too early to learn about dinosaurs! We didn't want to interrupt the story with the pronunciation of each dinosaur name. Dino Dictionary has a list of dinosaur names with pronunciation.

Cast--
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London

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Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz, Classic Kidz or Little Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or any organization that supports pediatric cancer research and treatment. We are not affiliated with St. Jude in any way other than these donations.

"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.

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Copyright ©2019, 2024 by Peggy Stuart

In Trouble at School

 "What happened to you?" Veronika asked Billy when he and Mariah came in.

Billy had a bandage on his face.

"It was a rough day at school," Billy sighed.
"Billy got into a fight," Mariah said. "He was defending my honor!"

"Fights are not good, no matter the reason, Mariah," Veronika said.

"Billy, tell me what happened," Veronika suggested.
"Well," Billy began, "Richie and Tom were picking on Mariah during recess. They called her a word I never heard before, but it sounded ugly."

"That's right," Mariah said. "I didn't know what it meant, either, but it sounded awful the way they said it. It made me feel bad. I wanted to cry."

"Then Richie said Mariah must be dumb, because her vinyl is a dark color," Billy went on. "Mariah is one of the smartest dolls I know, and even if she weren't it isn't nice to make fun of dolls who have difficulty with things. So I punched him in the nose."

Veronika shook her head. "So he hit you back," she guessed.

"Yes," Billy agreed. "Then a teacher came and took us both to the nurse and then to the principal. The principal told us that it's wrong to hit other dolls, no matter what they have done."

"The principal is right, Billy," Veronika said. "It's good that you wanted to help Mariah, and Richie and Tom were very naughty to pick on her, but hitting doesn't solve problems."

"But I had to do something!" Billy exclaimed. "Mariah is my friend and my sister, and I know that what they were saying was unkind! I was very angry."

"It made me feel very bad," Mariah said. "I was glad Billy wanted to help."

"It's normal to feel angry sometimes, Billy," Veronika said. "It's what you do with that anger that's important." She thought for a moment. "It sounds like Tom was just going along with Richie," she suggested. "Tell me what you know about Richie."

"Well, Mariah began, "Richie doesn't do well in class. I think he doesn't do his homework and doesn't study."

"We had a spelling test today," Mariah continued. "I got all the words right, but Richie missed a lot of them. He said I must have cheated," she said, "but I didn't!"

"Of course you didn't!" Veronika exclaimed. "You are a very smart doll, and you study. You know that cheating is wrong, too, and that if you make mistakes on a test it helps you find out what you need to work on."

"Then why would he say that I cheated and that he knew I must be dumb because my vinyl is dark?" Mariah wanted to know.

"Sometimes dolls are naughty to get attention or to make themselves feel better when they don't think they are good enough," Veronika replied. "Some dolls are so unhappy and afraid that they have to believe they are better than others because of the way they look, like the color of their vinyl."

"That's very sad," said Billy.
"It is sad," Veronika agreed. "We need to help dolls who feel bad about themselves by setting a good example for them. So, Billy, what do you think you could have done when you found the boys picking on Mariah?" Veronika asked.

Billy thought for a minute. He looked at Mariah. "Maybe I should have just shown that Mariah was my friend," he suggested. "I could have asked her to help me study for the next spelling test. I missed two of the words."

"That's a very good idea, Billy, because it shows them than you know Mariah is a good student," Veronika said.
"Then we could have walked away together," Mariah suggested.

"You could do that, but you don't need to walk away unless you want to, Mariah," Veronika said. "I think they want to get attention and make you feel bad. If you stay where you are but ignore them and don't let them get you into a fight or argument, you will do more good. Both of you could pretend you didn't hear the bad things they said, even though they might have said even worse things to you both, because you were spoiling their fun. You would be setting a good example of how to treat other dolls and showing them that they couldn't make you be naughty, too."

"Remember that Monday was a holiday?" Veronika went on. "It was the day each year when we honor a great man named Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He taught us not to give in to mean people, but not to fight back by hitting, either. He said, 'Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.' If you are kind to dolls who are mean to you, they don't enjoy being mean so much. They might even begin to respect you."

"Would Richie and Tom start being nice, then?" Billy asked.

"That would be up to them," Veronika explained. "We can't make others be nice. They have to learn that on their own, but we can help by setting a good example. Besides, when you set a good example for other dolls, you will feel better about yourself."
"One thing still worries me, though," Mariah said, looking down at her hands. "Does the color of a doll's vinyl mean they are smarter or dumber? I don't know how that works."

"Well," Veronika said, "dolls can be smarter or not as smart, because we are all different, but it has nothing to do with what you look like. We can be good at some things and not as good at others. Life experiences also change us, so we learn to use our abilities or we don't. A lot of it is up to us. The important thing is to be the best Mariah and Billy that you can be."
"Now I feel bad that I hit Richie," Billy said. "Now I feel sorry for him instead of hating him."

"I feel sorry for them both," Mariah said. "Tom went along with Richie, and he shouldn't have. Why did he do that? I wonder if he feels bad about himself, too. I'm sorry I hated them."

"What you're feeling is guilt, because you didn't know they are unhappy. What do you suppose you can do with that feeling?" Veronika asked.
"Maybe I can tell Richie I'm sorry I hit him," Billy answered.
"Maybe we can be nice to Richie and Tom," Mariah suggested.
"You are both very smart dolls," Veronika said, getting up. "You learn from your mistakes, and you try to be the best dolls that you can be. It sounds like you have a good plan! Now you must be pretending to be hungry. Let's go have a snack."

Cast--
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily of London

Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz or Classic Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to a charity that supports pediatric cancer, such as CURE Childhood Cancer or St. Baldrick's Foundation.
"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 2:00 PM Pacific Time.

Copyright © 2019, 2024 by Peggy Stuart