New free TouchChat template: Dinosaur Train

Six linked TouchChat boards for PBS KIDS’ Dinosaur Train — Buddy, Tiny, Shiny, Don, Mom and Dad Pteranodon and Mr. Conductor, eleven dinosaurs to name, the train and the Time Tunnel, the science words the show is known for, a board of big feelings, and a family board about being different and belonging anyway.

Dinosaur Train is a show about a T. rex who hatched into a family of Pteranodons. Buddy is orange and his brother and sisters are green, and the show never pretends otherwise. It says, every episode, that a family does not have to match.

So the Pteranodon Family board is the heart of this pack. Its family button is the whole family together, Buddy in the middle, and beside it are same and different, mom, dad, brother and sister, hug, share, I love you and together. A child can say who is in their family, and that it is fine for a family to look like theirs.

The show is also a science show, and children who love it talk like scientists. The Discover board has I have a hypothesis, the line every child who watches it knows, along with fossil, bones, dig, egg, paleontologist, explore, measure, why, I found it and get outside. The Dinosaurs board names eleven species, each drawn with the one feature that tells it apart, and carries carnivore, herbivore and omnivore, the words Buddy uses to sort every dinosaur he meets.

What’s on the boards

• Dinosaur Train — The main board — Buddy, Tiny, Shiny, Don, Mrs Pteranodon, Mr Pteranodon, Mr Conductor, me, friend; all aboard, ride, roar, look, find, eat; more, funny; please, thank you, hello, goodbye, my turn.
• Dinosaurs — Eleven dinosaurs to name — T rex, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Pteranodon, Brachiosaurus, Velociraptor, Ankylosaurus, Spinosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Troodon, Elasmosaurus, teeth, claws, tail, horns, spikes, wings, feathers, scales, long neck, carnivore, herbivore, omnivore; eat, stomp, hatch, swim; big, small, strong, scary.
• Train Ride — Riding the Dinosaur Train — train, caboose, ticket, station, track, Time Tunnel, seat, window, volcano, jungle, Big Pond, ocean, mountain, Pteranodon Terrace, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous; punch the ticket, go, stop, wait, sit; fast, slow.
• Discover — Thinking like a scientist — paleontologist; fossil, bones, egg, rock, plant, tree, flower, bug; dig, explore, measure, count, think, learn; I have a hypothesis, why, get outside, I found it, wow.
• Big Feelings — happy, sad, mad, scared, worried, surprised, shy, brave, lonely, excited, proud, frustrated, calm down, it’s okay, I can try, I need a hug, I need help, too loud, need a break.
• Pteranodon Family — The board this pack was built around — family, mom, dad, brother, sister, baby, grandma, grandpa; hug, share, help, play; same, different; hello, goodbye, I love you, together, sorry, my turn, your turn.

It is built for WordPower 60 on TouchChat. That is the one thing worth checking before you download: a page laid out for one grid size will not fit another. In TouchChat you can see which vocabulary is in use under Menu → Vocab → Choose Vocab.

It is free, like everything in our library. Get the Dinosaur Train template for TouchChat — or browse the whole free library.

Need something we do not have yet? Tell us what to build. Requests from families are where most of these come from.