Why Would a Dinosaur Not Make a Good Pet?

Year 2 at Bishop King CE Primary School Study Dinosaurs

As part of the extension activities suggested by Dinosaur Mike of Everything Dinosaur during his visit to Bishop King CE Primary School (Lincoln, England), to work with Key Stage 1, the children in Year 2 were challenged to have a go at designing their very own dinosaur.  Having met Tyler and explained that in the past a huge marine reptile roamed the seas of what was to become the United States of America, one of the company’s “pinkie palaeontologist challenges” was set.  Could the pupils come up with their very own prehistoric animal?

A Wonderful Oliversaurus from Oliver

Oliver designs a dinosaur.

Picture credit: Bishop King CE Primary School

Dinosaur Workshop

The children took to their task with gusto.  We challenged the class to think carefully about their dinosaur. For example, what colour would it be?  Would it have a long neck or a short neck?  A big body or a little body?  We wanted to see lots of lovely labels including pointing out where the dinosaur’s skull was, a word we introduced to the classes during our fossil handling activities.

Everything Dinosaur stocks a range of dinosaur themed toys and gifts: Dinosaur Toys and Gifts.

A Big Green Dinosaur with Navy Blue Spikes on His Back

A big green dinosaur.

Picture credit: Bishop King CE Primary School

Year 2 Term Topic

The term topic for the two classes of Year 2 children this autumn has a science focus.  The aim is to decide whether or not a dinosaur would make a good pet.  This subject area acts as an umbrella topic, linking in with exploration of food chains, habitats and life cycles as well as learning about different parts of the body.  This particular extension exercise dovetails nicely into art as well as supporting literacy, vocabulary development and handwriting skills.

Excellent Labelling Just Like a Scientist

A very colourful dinosaur design.

Picture credit: Bishop King CE Primary School

When it comes to providing posters for conferences detailing research, it is important to provide accurate, well annotated diagrams.  This is a useful skill within palaeontology.  It seems from these examples here that the pupils at Bishop King CE Primary have started to hone their science skills at an early age.

Commenting on the Drawings

Commenting on the drawings, that were very kindly sent into Everything Dinosaur by class teacher Miss Knapp, a spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur stated:

“A new dinosaur is named and described approximately every three weeks.  By the time the children break up for Christmas it is very likely that a further two dinosaurs will have been formally named and described.  Dinosaurs were a very diverse group of reptiles, over the 165 million years in which dinosaurs existed they evolved into all sorts of forms, as well as the giants such as Diplodocus and Tyrannosaurus rex, some dinosaurs could fly, others lived in trees whilst some types of dinosaurs excavated burrows.”

Our congratulations to the children in Year 2.  They have come up with some beautiful and very colourful dinosaurs and Everything Dinosaur team members were most impressed with all the clear labelling.  We hope our dinosaur workshop went some way to help the children to answer the question why would a dinosaur not make a good pet?