Chicks and Ducklings Learn All About Dinosaurs

For children in the Chicks and Ducklings classes at Bamford Academy, this term has been a very busy one as they have been learning all about dinosaurs, fossils  and life in prehistoric times. There were lots of colourful dinosaur themed artwork on display in the classroom and the budding young palaeontologists had looked at dinosaur eggs and pinned up many different types of prehistoric animals on the classroom’s “WOW” wall.

Class 1 and 2 Have Discovered That There Were Many Different Types of Prehistoric Animal

Lots of different extinct animals on display.

Picture credit: Bamford Academy/Everything Dinosaur

Foundation Stage Study Dinosaurs

Everything Dinosaur’s fossil expert who visited the school was shown where the volcanoes were in the picture and another very knowledgeable child pointed out that dinosaurs laid eggs.  During the tactile dinosaur workshop we looked at describing words for dinosaurs and fossils.  Real fossils feel cold and hard and some fossils can be really heavy.  When it came to considering appropriate describing words for a jawbone from a Triceratops, the children came up with words like “large” and “massive”, it took three of us to carry the jaw round to show the class, our expert was reliably informed that the teeth of Triceratops feel rough!

The children were keen to take part and we had lots of describing words volunteered, one little girl, stated that the tooth of “Tyrannosaurus rex was gigantic!”

Lots of Evidence on Display of Activities to Develop Vocabularies

Lots of describing words for dinosaurs on display.

Picture credit: Bamford Academy/Everything Dinosaur

Comparing Our Bodies to the Bodies of Dinosaurs

A key theme of the teaching topic had been comparing our bodies to those of dinosaurs.  The enthusiastic teaching team had come up with a very creative way of demonstrating how big T. rex was.  A drawing of the three-toed print of a Tyrannosaurus rex was made and the children counted how many pairs of their shoes would it take to fill up the footprint.  The feet of some dinosaurs were very big and it was wonderful to see such a thoughtful method used to demonstrate just how large some dinosaurs were.

Working out the Size and Scale of Some Dinosaurs

Measuring and comparing.

Picture credit: Bamford Academy/Everything Dinosaur

Some dinosaurs really did make enormous footprints.  The very biggest dinosaurs made footprints so large that if the track was filled with water a member of Chicks or Ducklings class could have had a bath in it?

Getting to Grip with Dinosaur Footprints

Theropod print compared to an ornithopod print.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The picture above shows one of Everything Dinosaur’s teaching aids showing two different types of dinosaur track.

Herbivores and Carnivores

We looked at plant-eaters as well as meat-eaters and the children were keen to demonstrate their knowledge as to what Triceratops and other dinosaurs ate.  It is a pity that we did not have any Stegosaurus fossils to show the children as there was a lovely, friendly Stegosaurus painted on one of the walls outside the classroom area.   The teaching team had encouraged the children to decorate the plates that ran along this dinosaur’s back and the children had also measured how long this dinosaur was by comparing it to the size of their own hands.

Measuring a Stegosaurus

How many hands?

Picture credit: Bamford Academy/Everything Dinosaur

Dinosaurs as a term topic has certainly proved to be very popular with the children and it was clear that a very effective, creative and challenging scheme of work for this topic had been prepared by the teaching team.

Everything Dinosaur stocks a wide range of educational, dinosaur themed toys and games including replicas of iconic prehistoric animals.  To see what is available: Everything Dinosaur Educational Toys, Games and Gifts.