Early Years Foundation Reception

7 12, 2018

Clever Craft Ideas Sensational Dinosaur Drawings Using Stencils

By Mike|2024-05-10T18:49:56+01:00December 7th, 2018|Early Years Foundation Reception, General Teaching|Comments Off on Clever Craft Ideas Sensational Dinosaur Drawings Using Stencils

Drawing Dinosaurs Using Stencils

During our travels visiting schools, we get to meet lots of eager, young, enthusiastic learners and their equally enthusiastic teachers. We are always amazed at the carefully crafted and challenging schemes of work that have been devised for the children. All sorts of learning styles are catered for including visual and kinaesthetic learning styles. Whilst on one visit to a school to deliver a dinosaur and fossil themed workshop to a Reception class, we commented on the use of stencils that had helped the budding, young palaeontologists draw prehistoric animals. One of the members of the senior leadership team arranged for some examples of the children’s work to be posted to our offices.

Drawing Dinosaurs Using Stencils

Colourful dinosaur illustrations — *The children created lots of colourful dinosaur stencil drawings. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.*

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Colourful Prehistoric Animal Drawings in the Classroom

The large and spacious Foundation Stage 2 classroom had some beautiful dinosaur themed displays. There was even a volcano made from tissue paper on one side of the room. The children were eager to show our dinosaur expert their drawings. The stencils had certainly helped and the pupils demonstrated their learning by confidently naming each dinosaur that the stencils represented. They even told us what each dinosaur ate (herbivore or carnivore) and when the dinosaur lived (Jurassic or Cretaceous).

A Bright, Colourful Volcano

A volcano on display in a classroom. — *Reception classes learn about volcanoes and dinosaurs. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.*

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Helping to Develop Motor Skills

Simple art and craft lesson plans can help young learners gain confidence and improve their motor skills. By drawing dinosaurs, children can practice their fine motor skills, essential when it comes to manipulating a pen, aiding the development of confident writers. We even saw some examples of the children’s hand-writing on display.

We hope the tridactyl dinosaur footprints we provided encourage the children to write their own names in the dinosaur track.

Visit the award-winning Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

13 11, 2018

Reception Children Learn All About Dinosaurs

By Mike|2023-11-11T08:01:44+00:00November 13th, 2018|Early Years Foundation Reception|Comments Off on Reception Children Learn All About Dinosaurs

Class 1 and Class 2 – “Dinosaur Roar”

Children in the Reception classes at The Berkeley Academy (Cheshire), have been learning all about dinosaurs and prehistoric animals this term.

A member of our teaching team was dispatched to deliver two workshops, one for each of the Reception classes (Class 1 and Class 2) and got the opportunity to work in the beautifully clean and well-appointed school hall. The hall at the school has some amazing pictures on display including a set of twenty-six pieces of art, all supporting an alphabet theme. Our dinosaur expert really appreciated the painting of the two skeletons that represented “X for X-rays”. In the two Reception classrooms, there were plenty of examples of Foundation Stage Two artwork, with some amazing dinosaurs made from paper plates.

Reception Classes Make Paper Plate Dinosaurs

A Brachiosaurus spotted in the dinosaur den. — *Children in Year 5 at Berkeley Academy (Cheshire), helped to decorate the dinosaur den in the Reception class.* *Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.*

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The enthusiastic teaching team were surprised to learn that there actually was a dinosaur called Plateosaurus!

Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals – A Highly Creative Curriculum

The Reception children were certainly enjoying the term topic and during our workshops they were very enthusiastic armoured dinosaurs, moving slowly and quietly through the forest. They also learned how T. rex arms worked and the children demonstrated lots of attentive listening. Young Lucas proved his amazing pre-knowledge by confidently identifying Ankylosaurus. Lucas and his friends know a great deal about prehistoric animals.

Colourful Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals

A brightly coloured dinosaur made from tissue paper. — *A brightly coloured meat-eating dinosaur created with tissue paper by Year 5 children.* *Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.*

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The dinosaur and prehistoric animal motif had been used to link with key learning objectives for the Reception children during the autumn term. The eager, young palaeontologists had been gaining confidence with numbers, learning to recognise the value of different numbers and to visualise quantities. A clear and easy to follow dinosaur themed number display had been helping (above).

Creative Play Aids Learning

The spacious and tidy Reception classrooms provided lots of opportunities to display the children’s work. Within the Foundation Stage, there is a clear focus on supporting personal, social and emotional development as well as assisting with physical development and communication skills. Our dinosaur expert spotted a poster inspired by the dinosaur picture book by Paul and Henrietta Stickland, the children had been pretending to be dinosaurs and considering how it might feel to be a prehistoric animal.

Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals on Display!

A dinosaur den spotted in a Reception classroom. — *Children in Class 2 (Berkeley Academy) have a dinosaur den in their classroom. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.*

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

We hope that the additional resources we supplied prove useful to the dedicated teaching team, we know that the dinosaur models and super-sized playmat that our dinosaur expert donated to the school will help support the term topic and to continue the theme of learning through creative play.

Visit the Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

8 11, 2018

Bees and Caterpillars Study Amazing Dinosaurs

By Mike|2024-05-11T06:32:00+01:00November 8th, 2018|Early Years Foundation Reception|Comments Off on Bees and Caterpillars Study Amazing Dinosaurs

Reception Classes at Mansfield Green E-ACT Academy Explore Dinosaurs

The eager young pupils in the two Reception classes (Bees and Caterpillars), at Mansfield Green E-ACT Academy (Birmingham, West Midlands), have been learning all about dinosaurs and life in the past this term. Under the tutelage of the enthusiastic teaching team, the budding palaeontologists have been exploring dinosaurs and using a variety of media to study prehistoric animals and their fossils.

Plenty of space had been set aside in the spacious classrooms to allow the children’s work to be displayed. One corner of a classroom had been turned into a special exhibit showcasing some of the activities.

Dinosaurs on Display in One of the Reception Classrooms

A dinosaur on display in a Reception classroom. — *An armoured dinosaur (Ankylosaurus) finds a home at Mansfield Green E-ACT Academy.*

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The armoured dinosaur model (above) was made by Safari Ltd.

To view the range of Safari Ltd dinosaur models: Safari Ltd. Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal Models.

Inspiring a Passion for Learning

A team member from Everything Dinosaur had been invited into the school, recently graded as “outstanding” in all areas by Ofsted, to deliver a dinosaur and fossil themed workshop with each class. Part of the school’s ethos is to inspire a passion for lifelong learning and the children were very keen to demonstrate their pre-knowledge and to take part in the various activities that we had prepared for them.

Our dinosaur expert set the children a special challenge, could they draw their very own dinosaur? This extension idea along with the other resources and lesson plan suggestions made by “dinosaur Mike” were well received by the dedicated teaching team.

Dinosaur and Fossil Workshop

There was plenty of good listening in evidence during the workshop, the children are certainly very knowledgeable about dinosaurs and they enthusiastically demonstrated T. rex fingers and T. rex arms. The pronunciation guide we provided should help the teachers when it comes to tackling all those tricky dinosaur names.

At Everything Dinosaur, we have lots of books about prehistoric animals. We were happy to provide a new dinosaur book, an addition to the school’s well-stocked library to help enthuse and inspire the next generation of scientists.

Visit the Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

11 10, 2018

Dinosaur Skeletons and Reception Classes

By Mike|2023-11-02T07:55:11+00:00October 11th, 2018|Early Years Foundation Reception|Comments Off on Dinosaur Skeletons and Reception Classes

Reception Classes Create Dinosaur Skeletons

It was a busy morning for the two Reception classes (RC and RH) at St. Mary’s RC Langley (Middleton, Manchester). The children have been learning all about dinosaurs and the eager, young palaeontologists participated in a couple of workshops organised by Everything Dinosaur. Prior to the activities with the children, our dinosaur expert got the chance to visit one of the Reception classes and to admire all the dinosaur themed artwork on display in the well-appointed and tidy classroom.

Dinosaur Skeletons

As an extension, the children were challenged to draw their very own dinosaur. This linked in well with an earlier activity that the children had been enthusiastically participating in, the Reception children had been cutting out dinosaur bones and fitting together dinosaur skeletons.

Sticking Dinosaur Skeletons with Reception Children

Straws used to make skeletons of dinosaurs (shapes and patterns). — *Using straws to make dinosaur skeletons – shapes and patterns. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.*

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Labelling Dinosaurs

We asked the children to have a go at labelling the different parts of the dinosaur’s body including the skull. With the help of the teaching assistant, young Christina brought into the spacious hall, where we had been working, her picture of a dinosaur that she had created so that she could show our dinosaur expert her lovely labelling. Some super demonstrations of phonic knowledge to help decode words and write them down. Well done to Christina and to all the busy scientists at St. Mary’s RC Langley.

The Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

14 06, 2018

Teaching Early Years Foundation Stage

By Mike|2023-10-14T18:57:11+01:00June 14th, 2018|Early Years Foundation Reception, General Teaching|Comments Off on Teaching Early Years Foundation Stage

Dinosaurs with Early Years Foundation Stage

Another busy day for Everything Dinosaur’s teaching team. One of our dinosaur and fossil experts had been invited to a school in south Yorkshire to help the Nursery and Reception classes kick-start their term topic learning all about prehistoric animals. The enthusiastic children enjoyed the workshops and had fun handling the fossils, several of them talked excitedly about it for the rest of the day.

We were given the spacious hall to set up in and we noted that on one of the walls, there was a display of prehistoric animals that had been created by some of the children at the school.

Prehistoric Animals on Display at the Primary School

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Extension Resources

Prior to the start of our workshops we were briefed on the learning needs of the children by one of the teachers. The classes had only been studying dinosaurs for a week, but they had prepared some amazing questions for our dinosaur expert to tackle. As well as delivering four workshops throughout the day, we donated some dinosaur books to the school library and provided some additional teaching resources to help support the scheme of work for the school term.

We are confident that our “dinosaur hokey cokey” will be well received by the eager, young palaeontologists.

We were also able to email over some dinosaur fact sheets and additional drawing materials to help support the Reception classes with a little challenge that we had set them.

Visit the Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

24 04, 2018

Palaeontology in a Plastic Tub

By Mike|2023-10-10T10:47:36+01:00April 24th, 2018|Early Years Foundation Reception, General Teaching, Key Stage 1/2|Comments Off on Palaeontology in a Plastic Tub

Mum Creates Mini Fossil Dig Site

Mother creates palaeontology in a plastic tub for her children.

We are always impressed by the efforts of parents, grandparents and guardians who do so much to help encourage and inspire their young charges. This week, whilst visiting a primary school to conduct a series of workshops with Year 2 children, we were given a tour of the classrooms and shown some of the amazing dinosaur and fossil themed crafts and activities created by the children and their grown-up helpers.

Amongst the numerous posters, dinosaur models and prehistoric dioramas that had been made, we spotted one enterprising family’s contribution. Mum had created a mini fossil dig for her child, a very clever idea indeed.

A Mini Fossil Dig Site Created as Part of a Term Topic Learning About Dinosaurs

palaeontology in a plastic tub. — *Digging away. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.*

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

For fossil dig kits and other prehistoric animal themed activities, visit the Everything Dinosaur website.

Take a look at this section of our website here: Prehistoric Animal Models and Educational Toys and Games.

Palaeontologists do use brushes when working on a fossil excavation. The general rule is, the closer you get to the fossil material the smaller the tools you use. For example, when removing the surrounding matrix from a fossil bone in the field, we use small brushes and tiny dental picks, to take away the surrounding rock, one grain at a time. In this way, progress may be very slow but at least the fossil is protected and not likely to be damaged.

To create her “palaeontology in a plastic tub”, the mum made salt dough fossils and rolled up pieces of white paper to represent bones. An old paint brush makes an ideal tool for brushing off the dirt, so this budding young scientist can find and identify the fossils.

What a simple, but very effective idea!

Visit the Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

21 04, 2018

Exclusive Dinosaur and Fossil Themed Extension Resources

By Mike|2024-05-10T19:01:33+01:00April 21st, 2018|Early Years Foundation Reception, General Teaching|Comments Off on Exclusive Dinosaur and Fossil Themed Extension Resources

Dinosaur and Fossil Themed Extension Resources

Prior to starting a day of dinosaur workshops with Foundation Stage 2 children there was time to discuss the additional teaching resources that our dinosaur and fossil expert had brought with them. When Everything Dinosaur team members visit schools, they always bring extra teaching aids to help support the school’s scheme of work.

For dinosaur models and prehistoric animal figures: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal Models.

Dinosaur Themed Teaching Resources for Schools

Everything Dinosaur teaching resources — *Fossils, books, puzzles and games for schools. Everything Dinosaur supplies an extensive range of prehistoric animal themed resources. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.*

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Dinosaur and Fossil Themed Teaching Resources

Learning about dinosaurs is a great topic for Reception and Key Stage 1 children. Many pupils already have quite a lot of pre-knowledge and learning about life in the past has plenty of touch points for cross-curricular activities, linking with literacy, numeracy, history, geography, exploring the properties of materials and introducing the idea of working scientifically. The teaching resources we had prepared for the reception class included a dinosaur “hokey cokey”, a measuring exercise comparing the hands of the children to the footprints of dinosaurs and an exercise linked to exploring locations in the British Isles following the adventures of a baby Diplodocus.

Everything Dinosaur supplies numerous lesson plan ideas and teaching resources. These items are available free and can be downloaded from several websites.

Visit the Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

We also supplied a handy pronunciation guide as we do appreciate that some teachers and learning support assistants can struggle with all the long dinosaur and prehistoric animal names. In addition, we also supplied some tridactyl (three-toed) dinosaur footprints that can be used in a simple writing exercise to help improve hand-eye co-ordination and motor skills.

A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur commented:

“Learning about dinosaurs and fossils can provide a very rewarding and stimulating topic area, that dovetails nicely into a subject that many children are enthusiastic about. Children as young as three, seem to pick up facts and awareness about dinosaurs and they love to demonstrate their knowledge and learning.”

We look forward to seeing pictures of the children’s work including their dinosaur drawings with lots of lovely labelling, a challenge we set the children during our dinosaur and fossil themed workshops.

25 02, 2018

Understanding and Exploring Feelings (PSHE)

By Mike|2023-09-16T17:34:05+01:00February 25th, 2018|Early Years Foundation Reception|Comments Off on Understanding and Exploring Feelings (PSHE)

Understanding and Exploring Feelings PSHE with EYFS

Dinosaurs can help young children explore their feelings.

A key aspect of teaching for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is to help the children develop key life skills, one of the principle frameworks for achieving this is through the PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education), portion of the curriculum.

Learning About Dinosaurs

In many schools, a topic involving learning about dinosaurs forms part of the scheme of work for Nursery and Reception. Children as young as three years of age can show remarkable pre-knowledge when it comes to dinosaurs and prehistoric animals and with giants like Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops to study, the children tend to be very enthusiastic learners. Dinosaurs as a topic can help children to build strong relationships and to manage their emotions, a dinosaur drawing can prove an effective teaching resource, assisting in the exploration of ideas such as your feelings, the feelings of others and exploring empathy.

Learning About Feelings/Thinking of Others

Dinosaurs and describing words. — *A dinosaur themed exercise helping children to develop their use of adjectives. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.*

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Dinosaur Workshops

When delivering dinosaur workshops to Foundation Stage children, our experts provide a number of additional resources. For example, the picture above shows a Triceratops with a speech bubble. The children are asked to see if they can work out what the dinosaur might be saying. This exercise provides valuable hand to eye co-ordination when it comes to holding a pencil and tests motor skills. It also helps the child to think about the feelings of others.

What Might Triceratops be Saying?

Triceratops helps with speech development. — *Exploring emotions and helping to construct sentences. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.*

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

These simple sheets that we provide utilise some of our detailed dinosaur illustrations and permit the teaching team to explore feelings using topic appropriate resources. At Foundation Stage, the teaching team are tasked with a number of responsibilities towards ongoing provision to support personal and emotional development.

Visit the Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

A dinosaur topic provides, numerous opportunities for children to explore and understand their feelings and the feelings of others. The teacher or teaching assistant can explore ideas such as is the dinosaur happy/sad? What would it say if it was sad? How might you (the child), act to help the dinosaur to stop from feeling sad?

These resources along with the other extension materials provided by Everything Dinosaur enable the Foundation Stage teaching team to develop clear, planned aspects of the curriculum that allow the children to explore feelings and emotions.

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

23 02, 2018

Hatching Chicks During a Special Dinosaur Workshop

By Mike|2024-05-04T18:26:32+01:00February 23rd, 2018|Early Years Foundation Reception, General Teaching|Comments Off on Hatching Chicks During a Special Dinosaur Workshop

Hatching Chicks During EYFS Dinosaur Workshop

Whilst delivering a series of tactile and kinaesthetic dinosaur themed workshops with children in Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), we were joined by some very special visitors to the school. As part of a rich, diverse and highly creative curriculum, the Foundation Stage children had the opportunity to watch hatching chicks. The incubator had been placed on a unit top allowing the children a perfect view, permitting them to observe the chicks hatching.

Special School Visitors – Hatching Chicks

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Birds are Dinosaurs

Our dinosaur expert explained that birds were actually dinosaurs and that the Dinosauria was classified into two groups, the non-avian dinosaurs such as Triceratops, Stegosaurus and Apatosaurus and the avian dinosaurs which includes all birds (Aves) living today. Some of the children even got to hold a cast of Tyrannosaurus rex toe bones and have their picture taken by the incubator.

For dinosaur themed education toys and games: Educational Prehistoric Animal Gifts.

Incorporating the Hatching Chicks into the Lesson Plan

The Everything Dinosaur team member explained how birds are very similar to dinosaurs and like T. rex, most birds walk on three toes. The similarities between the chicks and Tyrannosaurus rex were explained and highlighted, the photographs that had been taken by the teaching team would help to prompt the children’s thinking in a follow up activity. Can the children remember the similarities between dinosaurs and birds? What are the differences?

Visit the Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

5 02, 2018

Beautiful Salt Dough Fossils Spotted in School

By Mike|2024-05-08T20:25:37+01:00February 5th, 2018|Early Years Foundation Reception, General Teaching|Comments Off on Beautiful Salt Dough Fossils Spotted in School

Spotting Salt Dough Fossils in the Staff Room

Whilst on a school visit to conduct two dinosaur workshops with the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) classes at our school in Yorkshire, our sharp-eyed dinosaur expert spotted some super salt dough fossils made by the Reception-aged children.

Salt Dough Fossils on Display

*Dinosaur salt dough fossils spotted at a school. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.*

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

For dinosaur themed toys and games: Dinosaur Toys, Games and Gifts.

Toy Dinosaurs Used to Make Salt Dough Fossils

Salt dough is made by combining plain flour with salt in a ratio of 2.5 to 1 (two and a half cups of flour to a one cup of salt), place the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and combine using a little water until a doughy consistency is created.

Take the dough out of the bowl and knead it until it is very pliable then push a dinosaur model into the salt dough to create an impression of the prehistoric animal. These can be placed onto a baking tray and baked at 180 degrees Celsius (gas mark 4), for a few minutes to permit the dough to dry out. Remove from the oven and place on a cooling tray, perhaps they can be left overnight.

Children can then collect their own fossil, which can be marked with their name using a felt pen, these make a fantastic display in an impromptu dinosaur museum that has been set up in the classroom.

Our congratulations to Royal and Supreme classes for their beautiful fossils.

Visit the Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.