Primary School Children Get to Grips with Writing Thanks to Dinosaurs

Team members at Everything Dinosaur have received reports from Yeading Infant and Nursery School that a strange object has been found in the school’s discovery play area.  A number of children examined the large, white object with the help of their enthusiastic teachers and it has been decided that a dinosaur could have built a nest and laid an egg in the school grounds.

Dinosaur Egg Discovery

Encouraged by their school’s literacy co-ordinator Mrs Siyani, Year 1 and Year 2 pupils wrote letters to our dinosaur experts inviting one of our team members to visit the school to teach about dinosaurs and to help with a programme of creative writing that had been inspired by the discovery.

Could This Be a Dinosaur Egg?

Dinosaur egg helps with creative writing week.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Dinosaurs

Everything Dinosaur received lots of letters from school children inviting one of the company’s experts to visit the school, our thanks to Tiya, Jeevan, Amani, Shanaiya, Habib, Praveen, Zara, Arham, Hanan and all their chums for writing to us.  Tiya even drew a picture of the object and sent it into us, with her letter.  Tiya and her friends measured the egg and discovered that it was approximately 35 centimetres long.

Tiya’s Sketch of the Strange Object Found in the School Grounds

Tiya, sketches the egg.

Picture credit: Tiya

A Dinosaur Workshop

A source close to the school stated that there had been reports of a dinosaur being sighted in Hayes Town Centre, although the team member from Everything Dinosaur despatched to investigate was unable to confirm whether or not a dinosaur had been spotted in this part of the London area.

Praveen Writes to Everything Dinosaur

Praveen’s letter to Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Praveen

Helping the Teaching Team

The teaching team are using the discovery as part of a week of themed writing activities with Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 classes.  The boys and girls at the school are being encouraged to write about dinosaurs and other amazing prehistoric creatures and the teachers have prepared an innovative and “egg-citing” range of activities including Year 2 children researching about their favourite dinosaurs and creating fact sheets about them.

The Everything Dinosaur team member who visited the school was most impressed with the children’s knowledge about dinosaurs.  He promised to send to the teachers some more information and resources to help with the intended scheme of work, as well as encouraging the children to write about their dinosaur egg and what might happen if the egg hatched.

Shanaiya Invites Everything Dinosaur to Visit the School

Everything Dinosaur invited to visit school.

Picture credit: Shanaiya

Everything Dinosaur

As part of a number of dinosaur workshops held throughout the day, children got the chance to get up close to some real fossils and they learned some amazing dinosaur facts.  The Everything Dinosaur expert challenged the children to include some of the facts that they had learned in their stories and writing exercises.   He even promised (with the support of the teaching team), that some of the children’s work might even get onto this web log.  In this way, the children’s stories, fact cards and posters could be published just like a real scientist’s.

For information about Everything Dinosaur’s outreach work: Email Everything Dinosaur.

Dinosaur Discovery Helps to Inspire and Enthuse Young Writers

Dinosaurs inspire young children to write.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Perhaps the reception children, with the help of their teacher could compose a thank you letter.  Could the children have a go at designing their own dinosaur with some of the materials supplied by Everything Dinosaur?  We look forward to hearing more about the children’s work on dinosaurs and discovering what ideas the staff have had after our visit with regards to teaching about dinosaurs in schools.

For educational dinosaur toys, crafts and models: Everything Dinosaur.