Staff Rooms – Islands of Calm

As team members at Everything Dinosaur like to arrive nice and early at schools prior to delivering a dinosaur or fossil themed workshop, we very often get the chance to visit the staff room.  We can tell a lot about the school from the staff room, the orderly lay out of information on the walls, every inch of space (in most schools), being occupied by helpful and important information about child welfare, safe guarding and school activities.  The tidy sink area with the dishwasher emptying rota clearly displayed – oh happy days.  We think of the staff room as being a little island of calm inside a busy learning environment.

Everything Dinosaur

Located on one of the more prominent walls is the master whiteboard.  This for us, is the very hub of the school, its centre, its beating heart.  Written on the board are lots of notes for the teachers, teaching support team members and the school administrators, all the information required to help the school run efficiently and smoothly.  Most whiteboards are divided up into days of the week, this helps the staff to see at a glance what is going on and when.  A well organised staff room, equipped with a well organised white board does say a lot about the school.  Sometimes, team members at Everything Dinosaur even get a mention!

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

Fame as Everything Dinosaur and Palaeontology is Mentioned on the Notice Board

The FS2/Year 1 class have a palaeontology laboratory.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

We even got an emoticon 🙂 on the notice board.

Arriving Early in Plenty of Time for a Dinosaur Workshop

Team members always like to arrive early.  With dinosaur themed school workshops to deliver up and down the country, we certainly travel a lot in our work, but we try our best to arrive in plenty of time.  We do not want to worry the teachers and a late arrival could upset their teaching plans.  We know ourselves just how stressful it can be waiting for a school visitor to turn up.

For dinosaur toys, models and gifts: Dinosaur Toys, Models and Gifts.

Providing Dinosaur Themed Resources for Schools

After having supplied some prehistoric animal models and fact sheets to a teacher who was developing a scheme of work with a number of classes at her school, we received this kind email thanking us for our contribution.

Dinosaur Themed Teaching Resources

The teacher wrote:

“Thank you so much for the information.  It was exactly what I was looking for.  We are working on an outreach project for a local school (grades 4-6).  The prehistoric animal models are part of a school assignment on adaptation which includes extinction of species.  I hope to have the students get excited about science in general and plan to use the materials in lots of activities.  The information sheets you provided will help them learn about the prehistoric animals that they make models of.  It should be a fun day!”

Everything Dinosaur Supplies a Range of Prehistoric Animal Models and Other Resources for use in Schools

Lots of different prehistoric animal figures available from Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view this model range: CollectA Deluxe Prehistoric Life Models.

Everything Dinosaur’s Resources

The picture above shows a set of prehistoric animal models supplied to schools by Everything Dinosaur.  Each model is supplied with a fact sheet.  Each fact sheet is research and written by Everything Dinosaur team members and regularly updated in the light of new fossil discoveries and scientific evidence.

To visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

We shall leave the last word to the teacher.  As we had supplied the fact sheets late on Friday (in response to her email which arrived about thirty minutes earlier), the teacher was most impressed with our speedy response and rapid customer service.  The teacher concluded her email by saying:

“Thank you ever so much and have a great weekend!”

Here’s one teacher who has got her lesson planning sorted in double quick time.

To contact Everything Dinosaur: Send Everything Dinosaur an Email.

Model Dinosaur Skulls for Use in Classrooms

The enthusiastic teaching team at Everything Dinosaur have been busy advising teachers and teaching assistants as they prepare for the start of the academic year.  Many schools are undertaking a term topic on dinosaurs this autumn and Everything Dinosaur has a wide range of dinosaur themed teaching resources available, all designed to meet the learning needs of children as well as the objectives of the teaching team.

Model Dinosaur Skulls

Whether it’s the creative curriculum and “footprints in the past”, the “Jurassic forest” or “the land before time” dinosaurs as a term topic lends itself to all sorts of creative and imaginative teaching ideas that can support literacy, numeracy as well as introducing the concept of working scientifically.

A Set of Model Dinosaur Fossil Skulls

A set of eleven dinosaur fossil skulls.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view the skull model set and other prehistoric animal themed models from Everything Dinosaur: Everything Dinosaur Educational Products and Teaching Materials.

Herbivore, Omnivore or Carnivore?

The set of eleven dinosaur fossil skull models can be used for sorting games and/or identifying (from the skull, jaws and teeth), the diet of the dinosaur.  Ask the class to see if they can name the particular dinosaur that the skull model represents, the set features a mix of well-known and lesser known dinosaurs so this is a great way to differentiate,  Fortunately, for customers of Everything Dinosaur, we supply a handy key to help the teaching team work out which dinosaur skull is which.

Everything Dinosaur Supplies a Handy Identification Guide with Each Set of Model Fossil Skulls

Identifying dinosaur skulls.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

A Lesson Plan Idea

A teacher could split the class up into eleven groups.  Each group of children could be given their own dinosaur skull to research, can they produce a science poster all about their dinosaur?  Can the children create a fact sheet all about their particular dinosaur?  Once the children have studied their dinosaur skull model and prepared some facts and information about it, you could challenge each group to make a short presentation to the rest of the class about the dinosaur.  Typical things for them to find out include:

• When did it live?
• What is the dinosaurs name?
• Where did it live?
• What did it eat?
• How big was it?
• What does its name mean?

At Everything Dinosaur we are mindful of the need to stretch teaching resources, the models can be used over and over again and they can play a role in helping older children learn about adaptation, evolution and natural selection too.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

Everything Dinosaur and Summer Schools

The school holidays in the United Kingdom might be in full swing but for Everything Dinosaur’s intrepid teaching team the outreach work with schools does not stop.  The fossil and dinosaur experts have committed to a number of summer school sessions once again and team members are fitting in school visits in amongst their various other projects including fossil hunting and field work.  Yesterday, was typical for the Everything Dinosaur teaching team.  There was a summer school workshop in the morning and a second dinosaur themed workshop at another school in the afternoon.  In total, something like sixty children ranging in age from six years to twelve years of age were treated to some dinosaur and fossil fun.

Preparing Mini Fossil Dig Kits for Use at Summer Schools

A super hands on activity for FS2

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The photograph above shows a special fossil dig site.  It  had been prepared prior to a summer school visit.  In a typical two-hour session, the children explored dinosaurs and handled real fossils of prehistoric animals.  Fossil casts were made of giant shark teeth and various dinosaur bones and teeth.  Our dinosaur experts were on hand to help the budding young palaeontologists hunt for fossils using the mini fossil digs that had been prepared.

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

The excited and enthusiastic children had fun identifying teeth from prehistoric sharks, bivalves, brachiopods, rugose corals, ammonites and belemnite guards.  A couple of pieces of fossilised bone were also discovered in the carefully prepared dig kits our teaching team had got ready.  Best of all, the children got to keep the fossils that they found.

Summer School Activities

With child care difficult to obtain and in some cases, very expensive, summer schools provide a wonderful resource for parents and guardians who are not able to spend as much time with their children as they would like over the holiday period.  Summer schools offer a wide range of activities and the best run providers work hard to ensure that the workshops they deliver support learning and personal development.

Tyrannosaurus rex Features in One of Everything Dinosaur’s Summer School Games

The Rebor “retrosaur” Californiacation T. rex figure has an articulated lower jaw.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

For models of Tyrannosaurus rex and other prehistoric animals: Wild Safari Prehistoric World Models and Figures.

A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur commented:

“Summer schools provide a range of activities for children and the very best schemes provide support to the national curriculum and help with learning as well as the development of life-long social skills.  Our dinosaur and fossil themed workshops are extremely popular and we tend to be inundated with requests from summer scheme providers.  This makes juggling our other commitments to museums and our own field work quite difficult.  Still, it’s all in a day’s work for our team members.”

We wish all summer school providers and volunteers every success with their summer school programmes.

Contact Everything Dinosaur

Organisers of summer school schemes can contact Everything Dinosaur to enquire about our science outreach work: Contact Everything Dinosaur.

Back to School with Everything Dinosaur

Dinosaur and prehistoric animal themed stationery and school kits are very popular with schoolchildren at the moment.  Thanks to Everything Dinosaur, mums, dads, grandparents and guardians are spoilt for choice when it comes to kitting out their budding, young palaeontologists in readiness for the autumn term.   The summer holidays may have started in the UK, but we, at Everything Dinosaur are already busy with plans for the autumn and spring terms.  Parents, grandparents and guardians are also preparing for next term as they kit out their charges with school kits, lunch boxes and new backpacks.

Everything Dinosaur and Back to School

Let’s take a look at some of Everything Dinosaur’s great range of dinosaur themed pens, pencils, stationery, notepads and backpacks, a sort of review of “dinosaurs for school”

A Great Range of Dinosaur and Prehistoric Themed School Items from Everything Dinosaur

Back to school stationery available from Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Dinosaurs for School

Send your young palaeontologists off to school next term with this fantastic range of dinosaur and prehistoric animal themed school stationery, pens, pencils and notepads.   Take a dinosaur to school or out on your own fossil finding adventures with Everything Dinosaur’s huge range of back to school supplies.

Dinosaur themed school accessories: Dinosaur Themed Back to School Items.

When it comes to getting dinosaur fans ready for school, Everything Dinosaur has just about everything any young palaeontologist might require.  Pencils, pens, art materials, books, school sets and even school lunch boxes (all dinosaur themed), Everything Dinosaur has just about everything covered.

Dinosaur Themed School Kits from Everything Dinosaur

pens, pencils, lunchboxes, pencil cases, school kits all with a dinosaur theme.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The Autumn term is likely to be busy with a number of teaching sessions and programmes already sorted with Everything Dinosaur building on the national curriculum and the International Primary Curriculum (IPC) for schools.

For further information about Everything Dinosaur: About Everything Dinosaur.

Dino Zone and Everything Dinosaur Rocks

Yesterday, Saturday 9th of July was the Daresbury Laboratory Open Day, an opportunity for members of the public to visit Daresbury Laboratory (Cheshire) and to get to grips with all the wonderful science that goes on there.  Everything Dinosaur team members were asked to participate, firstly, we delivered workshops as part of the schools outreach programme working with Key Stage 2 and 3 pupils and then we were involved in the “Dino Zone”, part of the site dedicated to all things prehistoric.

Daresbury Laboratory Open Day

The Fossil Digging Area All Ready for the Young Palaeontologists

Ready for action, the Everything Dinosaur exhibit as part of the Dino Zone at Daresbury Laboratory.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

We had prepared a sand pit and several trays, these were then filled with lots of fossils, sharks teeth, brachiopods, crinoid stems, ammonites, belemnite guards, fossilised wood, pieces of fossilised bone and such like so that young people could dig for fossils and take home what they had found.  There was even a tooth from a prehistoric horse and a Woolly Mammoth rib bone to find.  Scientists from various institutions joined us in the “Dino Zone” and despite the heavy rain we were inundated with visitors.

Digging for Fossils with Everything Dinosaur

Over the course of the day, Daresbury Laboratory had something like 7,500 visitors.  Although the event was supposed to close at 5pm, there was a half hour waiting time for the “Dino Zone” and our team members stayed on until 6pm to ensure that everyone who wanted to got the chance to look for fossils.

For replicas of iconic animals from the fossil record: Everything Dinosaur Learning Zone.

Digging for Fossils with Everything Dinosaur

Fossil digging and lots of fossils to explore.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Finding Fossils

Our enthusiastic fossil experts were on hand to help identify the various finds, there was even a partial Mammoth femur (thigh bone) to explore.  We had brought a number of fossils from our collection to show visitors.  The ichthyosaur vertebrae (especially the big ones), proved popular as did the various teeth fossils that we brought along.

Mum Rebecca wrote on the Daresbury Laboratory Facebook page:

“My little girl found a shark’s tooth whilst digging in the Dino Zone area on Saturday.   She keeps asking how old it is and I have no idea!  Can you help at all?  Thanks.”

A team member from Everything Dinosaur replied:

“Hi Rebecca, “Dinosaur Mike” here from Everything Dinosaur, I was one of the team members helping at our fossil dig on Saturday.  The shark tooth is probably from the Eocene Epoch and from one of our digs in southern England.  It would be between 45 and 55 million years old.  Hope this helps.”

All in all it was a super day, our thanks to the enthusiastic and dedicated team at Daresbury Laboratory and all the volunteers who helped.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website: Everything Dinosaur.