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Overall Curricular Goal and Background

The Attributes of Optimistic and Resilient Children

Specific Learning Goals

PART 3 - Specific Learning Goals

Optimism and resilience help children to engage and persist in learning to ultimately master other areas of development. Therefore, these attributes are a vehicle to introduce other specific learning goals as well:

Specific Learning Goal 1 - Gaining Content Knowledge

Content knowledge is all the facts and information one typically learns in school. Paz presents a variety of content knowledge to children. Content knowledge addressed in the series includes: the concepts of heavy and light, physics, astronomy, senses, counting, rhyming, reading comprehension, valuing literacy, reading for information, alliteration, and directions. For example, episode # 21, "Starry Night" presents many astronomy concepts as Paz goes to the moon and dances with the constellations.

Specific Learning Goal 2 - Stimulating Cognitive Skills

Cognitive skills are thinking skills that help us acquire new knowledge and test and revise the knowledge we have. Some of the cognitive skills addressed in the series are: cause-and-effect reasoning, logical reasoning, following directions, flexible thinking, and visual spatial reasoning. For example, in episode #7, "Treasure Map", the friends pretend they are pirates hunting for buried treasure. They follow a map and thus model how to follow directions.

Specific Learning Goal 3 - Developing Interpersonal Skills

Interpersonal skills are those that help children get along with other people and function within a group. Some interpersonal skills modeled in the series are: perspective taking, empathy, negotiation, competition, valuing others, and compromise. For example, in episode 31, "Food for Thought", Pig makes muffins for her friends. The muffins taste horrible and the friends have to figure out how to let Pig know without hurting her feelings. Preschoolers have trouble seeing things from others' perspectives - in this case, preschoolers might not realize that saying something bad about the muffins could hurt Pig's feelings. The care the friends take to consider Pig's feelings models the important skill of perspective taking.

Specific Learning Goal 4 - Enhancing Intrapersonal Understanding

Intrapersonal understanding refers to self awareness and the understanding of self - one's own feelings, needs and desires. Intrapersonal skills addressed in the series include: identifying and understanding emotions (fear, impatience, anger, sadness, loneliness, and embarrassment), honesty, self-acceptance, and taking responsibility for actions. For example, in episode # 28, "Fine Feathered Friends", Paz realizes he is physically different from his friends. He is initially upset but then comes to see that his differences are special. This models self-acceptance as he comes to appreciate his specific characteristics.

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