He’s green, he’s a reptile, and he’s closing in on North Platte. No, this isn’t Godzilla, and he doesn’t have that fiery temperament. Or at least he has a much better method for controlling his strong emotions than leveling cities. Tucker Turtle is a character from a scripted story written by Rochelle Lentini, Lindsay N. Giroux and Mary Louise Hemmeter and produced by Discovery Source in California. He is used by Nebraska Children and Families Foundation’s Rooted in Relationships (RiR) to teach young children to cope with their big emotions. And in January he’ll be visiting Lincoln County to teach children, families, and early childhood professionals his method.
RiR is a statewide initiative that works with communities using evidence-based practices with early childhood professionals to promote healthy social emotional development for children, to provide coaching and training, and to identify the local systems that impact social emotional growth.
Jen Pfeifer, who got her start 6 years ago as a coach with RiR in Keith County and is now the Coordinator for Lincoln County, says, “one practice we know works with kids is to provide social emotional stories.” Tucker Turtle Takes Time to Tuck and Think is one of those stories that “teaches kids what to do when they have strong emotions and need to calm down,” she explains.
Last year, RiR gave Tucker books to families in North Platte, and this year they wanted to build on the event. Rooted’s aim when they come to a community, according to Pfeifer, is “to focus on social emotional development, birth to eight,” and in Lincoln County they have tried particularly to increase parent engagement and build community awareness both of RiR and social emotional development. This year, then, they thought beyond providing books, they would sponsor local readings, and who better to act as reptilian host than Tucker himself.
A life-size Tucker will begin his tour of Lincoln County on January 18, 2024, when he appears at a private reading for Osgood Preschool. He will then be part of a public event at the North Platte Library on January 23 at 10:30 a.m. and at 4 p.m., where the families who attend will receive a copy of the book. Finally, he will end his visit to the community on January 25 at the Buffalo Early Learning Center. Each of the schools will also receive a classroom copy of the book as well. Books come in both an at-home and for-school format and are provided in both English and Spanish.
Tucker’s story teaches children the “turtle technique” when they feel overwhelmed by emotion. His four-step process involves recognizing your feelings, stopping your body (as in flailing or hurting others), tucking inside your shell to take 3 deep breaths, and coming out when you’re calm to think of a better solution to the thing upsetting you. Each book provides tips (depending on version) for either educators or families, a list of possible solutions that children might work through, and a set of cards that can be posted so children can practice the technique with adults.
Perhaps Tucker could teach us all an important lesson. As Pfeifer says, “when we flip our lids, rational thinking is difficult.” For children, these important social emotional lessons are crucial to early brain development. Tucker then is a means of providing young children with lifelong strategies for coping with a world that is sometimes frustrating.
If you’re interested in bringing your children to hear the story and in receiving a copy of the book, join the Rooted team, community representatives, and, yes, Tucker, for a morning or an afternoon of tucking, breathing, and thinking at the North Platte Library.
Nebraska Children’s mission is to create positive change for Nebraska’s children through community engagement.
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