Key Stage 1 Learn About Dinosaur Geography – A Helpful Exercise

Dinosaurs Help Children Learn About the Continents

The national curriculum in England for children in Key Stage 1 states that pupils should know the location of the seven continents and they should be able to name them along with the five oceans. A requirement of this area of the curriculum (geography), is that children should develop locational knowledge. Everything Dinosaur has developed a dinosaur based geography exercise that helps with the teaching of this topic. It uses children’s pre-knowledge about prehistoric animals and their enthusiasm for dinosaurs to help them learn and recognise the location of the different continents.

Everything Dinosaur – Using Dinosaurs to Help Children Learn about the Location of the Continents

Key Stage 1 – dinosaurs and geography exercise.  Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Demonstrating Learning and Linking Subject Areas

Palaeontologists have found dinosaur fossils on all seven continents.  Dinosaurs even roamed Antarctica, although, in the past, due to higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and other factors, the landmass we now know as Antarctica was much warmer than it is today.  Using a child’s fascination for prehistoric animals, Everything Dinosaur has developed a dinosaur geography based lesson.  Can the children identify where in the world different dinosaurs lived?

Palaeontologists Have Found Dinosaur Fossils in Antarctica

The Papo Cryolophosaurus dinosaur model.  Cryolophosaurus dinosaur fossils have been found in Antarctica.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The picture (above) shows a Papo Cryolophosaurus dinosaur model.  Fossils of Cryolophosaurus have been found in Antarctica.

To view the Papo model range: Papo Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal Figures.

Everything Dinosaur and a Dinosaur Geography Exercise

Our comprehensive lesson plan provides the teaching team with simple instructions and the only resources required are a map of the world as it is today, some round-ended scissors to cut out the various dinosaurs from the worksheets and some sticky tape to secure the dinosaur in the correct place on the map.

The Everything Dinosaur geography exercise asks children to place a total of twenty-five different dinosaurs onto the various continents where the dinosaur’s fossils have been found.  Two of the dinosaurs have to be placed on the continent of Antarctica, the armoured herbivorous dinosaur Antarctopelta and the fearsome, meat-eating dinosaur Cryolophosaurus.

To read an article about Cryolophosaurus, a dinosaur that lived in Antarctica: Twenty Years of Studying the Antarctic Dinosaur Cryolophosaurus.

Twenty-five Dinosaurs – Can the Children Find the Continent Where Their Fossils Have Been Discovered?

A selection of prehistoric animals in the dinosaur geography exercise.  Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Learning About Where Famous Dinosaurs Lived

The national curriculum demands that pupils should develop a knowledge about planet Earth.  Within a dinosaur topic, learning about where well-known dinosaurs lived enables the teaching team to link this subject to the aims and objectives of the geography section.  Dinosaurs can help children learn the names and location of the seven continents and the five oceans.  Introducing famous fossil hunters such as Mary Anning and Sir Richard Owen can help children locate places in the UK where fossils have been found.

Everything Dinosaur’s geography exercise challenges Key Stage 1 pupils to place on a map of the world where famous dinosaurs like Triceratops, Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex lived.

For further information about Everything Dinosaur’s science outreach work: Contact Everything Dinosaur.

To visit the Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.