Year 1 Children Find Fossils

The children in Year 1 at St Joseph’s Primary (Lancashire), had a morning of pretending to be palaeontologists as their autumn term topic “Dinosaur Planet” was kicked-off in style.  The friendly staff had prepared a scheme of work all about dinosaurs, an area of learning used elsewhere in the school, as the Nursery children (EYFS), would also be studying Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, Stegosaurus et al over the course of the academic year.

“Dinosaur Planet”

Prior to our visit to conduct a morning of dinosaur and fossil themed activities with the enthusiastic children, the teaching team had challenged the class to record in their topic books what they knew about these long extinct animals.  Our dinosaur expert was impressed with the neatness of the handwriting, how well the letters had been formed and the appropriate finger spacing between words.

“Dinosaur Planet” – What I Know About Dinosaurs

At the start of the dinosaur topic the Year 1 children recorded what they know about dinosaurs.
At the start of the dinosaur topic the Year 1 children recorded what they know about dinosaurs.  For example, one pupil wrote that dinosaurs are related to reptiles – that’s right, the Dinosauria are indeed a diverse group of reptiles. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Why Did Diplodocus Have a Long Neck?

As part of the writing exercise, referred to as KWL:

  • what I know?
  • secondly, what I want to know?
  • what have I learned?  An opportunity to check understanding at the end of the topic.

The year 1 children wanted to know why did a Diplodocus have a long neck?

Why Did a Diplodocus Have a Long Neck?

CollectA rearing Diplodocus dinosaur figure.
During the morning of dinosaur themed activities, the school visitor from Everything Dinosaur made sure to answer the question about the neck of Diplodocus.

The picture (above) shows a Diplodocus model from the CollectA Age of Dinosaurs model range.

To view this range: CollectA Age of Dinosaurs/Prehistoric Life Models.

The first part of the morning involved visual and kinaesthetic learning with lots of physical exercises to help reinforce learning.  In the second part of the workshop, which was conducted in the classroom, the children were given the opportunity to find their own fossils.  The eager young palaeontologists found lots of fossils in our special challenge, teeth from prehistoric sharks, pieces of fossilised turtle shell, lots of ammonites and even some armour from a Jurassic crocodile!

The Children Demonstrated Lots of Pre-knowledge

Year 1 KWL exercise at the start of the dinosaur term topic.
KWL exercise (Year 1 term topic).  The Year 1 children were keen to demonstrate their knowledge about dinosaurs, even a Gallimimus was mentioned. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

We are confident that the budding young palaeontologists at St Joseph’s Primary are going to really enjoy their autumn term topic.

If you are preparing for a “Dinosaur Planet” term topic, visit the Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.