Digging up Dinosaurs

What is it about kids and dinosaurs? They love learning about these extinct animals, and we have so much fun with this unit. I love all the neat ideas that can be used during this unit, I just hate trying to figure out how to say all those long names! (although I think my students love hearing me stumble over those words!)

Books

Danny and the Dinosaur Go to Camp (Syd Hoff)
How Big Were the Dinosaurs (Bernard Most)
It’s Probably Good Dinosaurs are Extinct (Raney)
Dinosaur Questions (Bernard Most)
Detective Dinosaur Lost and Found (James Skofield)
Dad’s Dinosaur Day (Diane Dawson Hearn)
Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp (Carol Diggory Shields)
Berenstain Bears and the Dinosaurs (Stan & Jan Berenstain)
If the Dinosaurs Came Back (Bernard Most)
Dinorella (Pamela Duncan Edwards)
Dinosaur Time (Peggy Parish) *good non fiction to read aloud
Dinosaur Question and Answer Book
Dinosaur Cousins (Bernard Most)
Where to Look for a Dinosaur (Bernard Most)
Dinosaurs Strange and Wonderful (Laurence Pringle)
Dinosaur Hunt (Rolf Johnson)
Rourke Dinosaur Dictionary (Joseph Hincks)

Activites

Math
  • Patterns - cut out pictures of dinosaurs to make dinosaur patterns - pretty self explanitory!

  • Favourite dinosaur graph - at the end of the unit we make a large class graph with the more popular dinosaurs. Each student gets a chance to vote for their favorite dinosaur by putting a dinosaur sticker on the graph. We count the dinosaur votes, add them up, and talk about which has the most votes, the least, and equal votes. The students then re-write the graphs on individual graph sheets, using symbols to represent the votes.

  • Walking in footprints - I cut out a large dinosaur footprint. The students trace one of their own feet, and glue it into the large footprint. How many footprints does it take to fill in the dinosaur footprint?

    Science

  • Palaeontologists - I bury a large dinosaur puzzle in the sand table. My little scientist are given paintbrushes to gently find all the puzzle pieces. They then put the puzzle together to see what kind of dinosaur they found.

  • Computer - we have the Magic School Bus game about the Dinosaurs. The students get to explore the dinosaur world and learn computer skills.

  • Dinosaur eggs - I hid small plastic dinosaurs in treasure stones:
    1 c flour
    1 cup used coffee grounds
    1/2 c salt
    1/4 c sand
    3/4 c water
    Mix everything together and knead it like bread dough. Roll balls with the dinosaurs inside them. Let air dry for 2-3 days OR bake in the oven 150 degrees for 15-20 minutes.
    We talked about how dinosaurs laid eggs, and what was in an egg. Then the kids were all able to 'hatch' their own eggs.

  • Herbivore, carnivore - discuss the difference between plant and meat eating dinosaurs, and we look at flat teeth and sharp teeth. We catagorize dinosaurs based on being herbivores or carnivores. For fun, we play Herbivore, herbivore, carnivore, just like duck duck goose.

    Writing

  • Dinosaur shape book - obviously, a book shaped like a dinosaur! The pages say 'It's a (dinosaur name)', they need to figure out what dinosaur it is and draw a picture of the dinosaur.

  • I am a Dinosaur Book - this book has 6 dinosaurs in it. Each page has a hint to the dinosaur (I have sharp teeth. My name is_________, I have a long tail. My name is________). There is a picture of the hint (ie the sharp teeth), and the students use this picture as part of their picture. It's a good tool to see how well the students can integrate these pictures into their own book, or if they can recognize the image out of context. Some of them can do this, and some of them can't yet. I don't penalize them if they cannot.

  • Coolest dinosaur of the day - they students all vote on the coolest dinosaur. A picture of this dinosaur goes onto the chart, and we brainstorm vocabulary words (sharp teeth). They can write these words on the chart paper.

  • Dinosaur baby - each student gets a white paper egg shape and a brown paper egg (from a grocery bag). The brown egg goes into a rubbermaid box, they drop paint onto the egg and add two bouncy balls into the box. The lid goes onto the box and they SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE. On the white egg they write Baby (dinosaur name) and draw a picture of that baby dinosaur. Staple the brown painted egg in front, and voila, a baby dinosaur egg!

    Art

  • Texture dinosaur - the students use different coloured crayons to get textured rubbing from around the world. They glue a dinosaur tracer onto the back, and cut out around the tracer. It looks like the dinosaur has bumpy skin - we then talk about how we don't know what colour the dinosaurs were, but we know they had bumpy skin.

  • Painted dinosaurs - they use tracers to trace a dinosaur onto a sheet of paper. They use pastels to colour it as many colours as they like. They then paint a background for their dinosaur using tempra paints. Once it's dry the pastel dinosaur gets glued on top. The contrast of the different colouring types looks great!

  • Felt dinosaurs - I cut out 2 sides of a felt dinosaur for each student. They sew, yes, sew around the dinosaur (I find the larger quilting needles are easier for the students to handle, with a thick thread that doesn't tangle easily). We stuff the dinosaur with batting, and they have their own stuffy. The kids take great pride in these, it's their favourite center to go to.

    Songs and Poems

    5 Little Dinosaurs
    5 little dinosaurs went out to play (walk across room)
    Out in the land of the lost one day
    Tyrannosaurus Rex ate one for a snack
    And 4 little dinosaurs came running back(1 child stays, others back)

    4 little dinosaurs... (continue) 3... 2...

    1 little dinosaur went out to play
    Out in the land of the lost one day
    Tyrannosaurun ate him/her for snack
    And no little dinosaurs went running back!

    No little dinosaurs went out to play
    Out in the land of the lost one day
    Tyrannosaurus Rex couldn't find anything to eat
    So she went home and went to sleep.

    (I will often add more dinosaurs to this so everyone has a chance to be a dinosaur, and someone gets to be T-rex)

    Find Them Bones So Old
    (students in circle, pictures of dinosaurs
    in the middle. Join hands, move clockwise one verse
    counterclockwise the next.
    Kids pick up picture for each verse.)

    Dinosaurs lived so long ago
    Their skeletons are buried in the earth below
    CHORUS: Dig palaeontologist! Dig palaeontologist! Find them bones so old!

    Stegosaurus lived so long ago,
    Protective armoured plates down his spine would grow
    CHORUS

    Triceratops lived so long ago
    Three pointed horns on his face would show
    CHORUS

    Pterodactyl lived so long ago
    Flying over swampsland far below
    CHORUS

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