Key Stage 1 Learn About Continents Using Dinosaurs
Another busy week for the teaching team at Everything Dinosaur. During one of our school visits to deliver a dinosaur themed workshop to Reception and Key Stage 1 children, we were asked by a member of the teaching team to provide assistance when it came to reinforcing learning about the seven continents. Luckily, our knowledgeable dinosaur experts had prepared a dinosaur themed geography exercise to help link the geography and science topics together.
Linking a Term Topic About Dinosaurs to Learning About Continents (Geography)
Key Stage 1 – dinosaurs and geography exercise. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
Dinosaur Fossils Have Been Found All Over the World
Palaeontologists know that dinosaurs lived all over the world. The world may have looked very different during the time of the dinosaurs, but fossils of dinosaurs have been found on every continent, even Antarctica. This evidence proves that dinosaurs lived on all seven continents. As our dinosaur experts know which kinds of dinosaurs lived where, they can use this information to develop teaching resources to help children learn about geography such as the names and the locations of these continents.
The Dinosaur Geography Exercise
A selection of prehistoric animals in the dinosaur geography exercise. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
The Key Stage 1 children are challenged to put each of the named dinosaurs onto a map of the world, on the continent where the fossils have been found. Naturally, we provided a comprehensive lesson plan with all the information the teaching team required to help support the children’s learning.
For dinosaur themed toys and games: Dinosaur Toys and Games.
Developing Locational Knowledge
Under the national curriculum for England, children in Key Stage 1 should develop knowledge about the world and develop a basic vocabulary relating to human and physical geography. A key requisite is to be able to name and locate the world’s seven continents and five oceans. Our dinosaur geography exercise cleverly links in this teaching requirement and enables the children to demonstrate their understanding by making links across topic areas.
Helpful Teaching Notes are Provided by Everything Dinosaur
A chart to help kick-start a teaching topic about dinosaurs. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
Cross-curricular Learning
In the rich and varied scheme of work for the dinosaur term topic at the school we were visiting, the teachers had included sub-topic areas such as learning about Mary Anning as well as learning about how the Earth has changed since the time of the dinosaurs. The dinosaur geography exercise that we had developed dove-tailed nicely into the teaching team’s scheme of work.
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A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur commented:
“We were able to combine the children’s enthusiasm for learning about dinosaurs with the teacher’s need to ensure that the class could learn about the location of today’s continents. This was a great way to test understanding and to reinforce learning across different subject areas.”
For further information about Everything Dinosaur’s work: Contact Everything Dinosaur.