Blackford CE Primary School goes “Walking with Dinosaurs”

Last Friday, Everything Dinosaur travelled to Cumbria to provide some dinosaur teaching sessions to the eager, young palaeontologists at Blackford CE Primary School.  The morning was spent working with the juniors under the tutelage of Miss Thompson.  The children had been studying dinosaurs as their term topic and they has posted up some super dinosaur themed poems.  These poems made a great display on one of the walls of the classroom.

A Dinosaur Inspired Poetry Corner

Prehistoric animal poems.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur/Blackford CE Primary School

Dinosaur Teaching Workshop

There were lots of different prose writing techniques on display and it was interesting to note the various prehistoric animals that the children had chosen as the subject for their poems.  If we ever need to think up some rhymes for the likes of Triceratops and Diplodocus, Blackford CE Primary School will be our first port of call.

A Poem Entitled Ten Angry Dinosaurs (by Amy)

Ten angry dinosaurs poem.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur/Blackford CE Primary School

Creative Extension Work

As a teaching topic, dinosaurs does lend itself to all sorts of creative extension work.  The subject area can touch upon design and technology, maths, geography as well as science and history.  With these poems Miss Thompson has encouraged her pupils to consider how poems are constructed as well as encouraging their creative writing skills.

An Ode To Triceratops Written by Grace

“Three horned Face” has a poem written about it.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur/Blackford CE Primary School

If the likes of Charles Dickens can write about dinosaurs (Bleak House), then it seems that the juniors at Blackford CE Primary are following in some very famous footsteps.

The children’s artistic talents were also encouraged by Miss Thompson, aided by teaching assistant Miss Turner.  Working in small groups the pupils had designed their own colourful dinosaur posters.  Each poster focused on a single genus of prehistoric animal and as well as drawings and pictures the children had researched facts about the animal and reproduced this information on their posters.

A Poster All About Triceratops

A Triceratops dinosaur poster.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur/Blackford CE Primary School

A very informative poster all about a very famous horned dinosaur made by Zach, J.J., Ellie, Chloe and Freya.  We loved the drawing on the left of the picture (as you look) showing a huge, brown volcano.  We talked about Triceratops during the dinosaur teaching session and we set the class a puzzle concerning this particular dinosaur.  The children had to consider the evidence and then come up with a theory to explain what they thought might have happened – interesting stuff!

Another group of juniors had created a poster of Diplodocus.  As the poster was being laminated the laminating machine chewed it up a bit creating a rippled effect on the poster. Undaunted,  the pupils decided that the texture was probably like that of the skin of this particular long-necked dinosaur.  We had some casts of dinosaur skin with us on the day, but with all the other activities and experiments including testing to see if your tongue sticks to fossil material (an experiment inspired by budding dinosaur hunter Jack), we did not get round to showing these items.

Diplodocus Takes Centre Stage

A dinosaur poster by children at Blackford CE Primary.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur/Blackford CE Primary School

In the afternoon,  it was time to work with the younger children in the school.  Miss Cruickshank’s class were treated to some tactile fossil handling which involved an exploration of the properties of materials interspersed with some physical activities.  There were lots of questions, Nigella wanted to know all about Diplodocus and Elizabeth asked about Tyrannosaurus rex.  One of the pupils (Katie) had even made a set of dinosaur fact cards featuring the likes of Stegosaurus and the fearsome Spinosaurus – nice work Katie!

The Dinosaur Fact Cards Made by Katie

Katie’s dinosaur fact cards.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur/Blackford CE Primary School

We loved Katie’s illustrations on her “bite sized” fact cards, but all too soon it was time to pack up and go home.  However,  the pupils at Blackford CE Primary along with their teaching staff are going to have a few more weeks of this teaching topic and with the creative teaching team we are confident that there will be lots of exciting dinosaur themed teaching activities carried out.

To view the range of dinosaur themed toys and gifts available from Everything Dinosaur: Dinosaur Toys and Gifts.