General Teaching

5 05, 2016

A Beautiful Dinosaur Display

By Mike|2024-05-06T06:32:47+01:00May 5th, 2016|General Teaching, Key Stage 1/2|Comments Off on A Beautiful Dinosaur Display

An Attractive Classroom Dinosaur Display

Whilst visiting Great Wood Primary school in Lancashire to deliver a dinosaur themed workshop for two classes of Year 2 children, Everything Dinosaur’s fossil expert was given the opportunity to view the spacious classrooms. The school, located in Morecambe is expanding and a number of building projects have taken place but skilful planning has kept any disruption to the teaching scheme of work to a minimum. The Year 2 children are just starting their dinosaur term topic and under the enthusiastic tutelage of the teaching team they have already explored a number of key ideas related to life in the past.

A Dinosaur Drawing

Dinosaurs – Part of a Display Area in One of the Classrooms

Blake sent a dinosaur drawing to Everything Dinosaur. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The photograph above shows a dinosaur drawing created by young Blake. The dinosaur drawing exercise was undertaken as part of an extension activity. This will help to tie in cross-curriculum aspects of the term topic, in this instance, scientific working exploring dinosaurs being linked to geography. The wall, part of a series of “wow walls” set up by the teachers to showcase the children’s work all have plenty of space on them to allow some of the work undertaken by the children, examples of dinosaur posters and fiction writing, to be posted up so that parents and other school visitors can view how the topic has been developed.

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

Dinosaur Workshop

The children really enjoyed the dinosaur workshops we delivered and given the exciting scheme of work the teaching team have developed, we are confident that these budding young scientists will find this topic great fun.

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

3 05, 2016

Sensational Fossil Skull Provides Insight into Dinosaur Senses

By Mike|2024-05-06T06:33:20+01:00May 3rd, 2016|General Teaching|Comments Off on Sensational Fossil Skull Provides Insight into Dinosaur Senses

Titanosaur Fossil Skull Provides Evidence of Dinosaur Senses

The almost perfectly preserved fossilised skull of a giant, long-necked dinosaur found in Argentina has helped provide palaeontologists with an improved understanding of the senses of dinosaurs. The fossil skull was excavated from Upper Cretaceous strata in the Chubut Province of southern Argentina some years ago, but it was only recently restored and subjected to detailed CT (computerised tomography) scans that allowed scientists to gain an understanding of the size and the structure of the dinosaur’s brain.

Fossil Skull

Scientists Marvel at the 95-million-year-old Dinosaur Skull

Dr Martinez (right) and Dr Lamanna (left) with Sarmientosaurus skull.

Picture credit: Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Describing a Titanosaur Skull

Authors of the scientific paper that has been published in the on-line journal PLOS One include Dr Rubén D. F. Martínez (National University of Patagonia) and Dr Matthew Lamanna (Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), state that this dinosaur skull, a titanosaur, known as Sarmientosaurus is exceptionally rare. Four such skulls have been found to date from locations as far apart as Madagascar and Mongolia but this fossil found in Patagonia, is the best preserved.

For models and replicas of titanosaurs and other saurpod dinosaurs: CollectA Deluxe Prehistoric Life Models.

Analysis of the CT scans has enabled the research team to build up a picture of this large, plant-eating dinosaur’s senses. It had large eyes and very probably excellent eyesight. It also had good hearing, especially well adapted to picking up low frequency airborne sounds. The tooth of a large meat-eating dinosaur was found near the skull fossil, such sharp senses would have been very useful for this Late Cretaceous dinosaur, helping to keep it safe from predators.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s user-friendly and award-winning website: Everything Dinosaur.

28 04, 2016

Kind Words from a Teaching Assistant

By Mike|2023-04-18T21:54:28+01:00April 28th, 2016|General Teaching|Comments Off on Kind Words from a Teaching Assistant

Memorable Dinosaur Workshops in Schools

Most of us can remember things that we did at school, field trips, summer excursions, special assemblies and so on. With Everything Dinosaur having delivered something like three hundred dinosaur and fossil themed events and workshops over the last few years, we like to think that in our own small way our work in schools has contributed to those happy memories.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

Dinosaur Workshop

Whilst on a return visit to a school to work with a Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) class, we were pleased to hear from a teaching assistant how fondly her own children remembered a visit from Everything Dinosaur to their classroom. It seems our tactile fossil handling activities made quite an impression. The Teaching Assistant dropped us a line to let us know what an effect our workshops had.

Thank you Everything Dinosaur

Thanks from teacher. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Encouraging Children

We encourage children to write letters to us, after all, this is a good way for Key Stage One and Key Stage Two pupils to practice handwriting, sentence construction and the layout of letters, but we also appreciate feedback from the grown-ups too.

The Teaching Assistant wrote:

“My own children participated in this session when in Reception, they were very jealous this morning. Alexander is now in Year 8 and Charlotte is in Year 5 now. It is a fantastic memory which was so inspiring for them. Thank you!”

Thank you for your kind words, it is always nice to get feedback and to receive comments from those who have had the opportunity to see one of our workshops.

For further information on Everything Dinosaur’s workshops in school: Contact Everything Dinosaur.

22 04, 2016

Dinosaurs and Rare Fossils at Sandbrook Community Primary School

By Mike|2024-05-05T21:55:23+01:00April 22nd, 2016|Early Years Foundation Reception, General Teaching|Comments Off on Dinosaurs and Rare Fossils at Sandbrook Community Primary School

Earth Day, Dinosaurs, Awards and Ofsted

What a busy day for teachers, staff and children at Sandbrook Community Primary School. The two Reception classes have started to learn all about animals and life in the past with a topic dedicated to all things dinosaur. In addition, there was a special assembly at the busy Rochdale school where some of the hard working and enthusiastic pupils received certificates for the dinosaur footprints they had made. On top of all this, the Children’s Nursery is having an Ofsted inspection and it is Earth Day! April 22nd is a very important date, events are held all over the world to demonstrate support for our planet and the environment.

There were some wonderful examples of recycling to see in the school and the well maintained garden and play areas certainly indicated that the children and staff at this “Eco-School” appreciate the environment. Under the supervision of Mrs Beazley some of the Reception children had a go at making dinosaur footprints and of course, given the fact that it’s Earth Day, the dinosaur tracks had to be green.

Dinosaur Footprints on Display

Reception Class Make Dinosaur Footprints

Dinosaur footprints made by Reception class children. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur/Sandbrook Community Primary

For dinosaur and prehistoric animal themed toys and games: Dinosaur Themed Toys and Gifts.

Dinosaur Workshop for Reception Classes

The children learned all about a giant armoured dinosaur, how many tummies Tyrannosaurus rex had, what fossils feel like and how prehistoric ammonites caught their dinners. There was lots of fossil handling and fun activities in the two workshops and the teaching assistants were on hand to provide plenty of support and to take plenty of pictures (useful in recall and recounting activities later on).

Walking with Dinosaurs – Sandbrook Community Primary School

Reserved parking for Everything Dinosaur. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur/Sandbrook Community Primary

Using a foam cut which had been dipped in paint, the children were able to walk along a strip of paper and produce some super dinosaur footprints. Our fossil expert was allowed to pop into the spacious and well-appointed Reception classroom whilst the children were having lunch and take some pictures of their handiwork, (should that be footwork)?

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

We set a few challenges to the children including producing a dinosaur drawing. Could they label their dinosaur drawing, including pointing out where the skull was? During our workshops we explained what skulls were and we also talked about dinosaur brains!

The teaching team and the children had a fantastic time exploring dinosaurs and after the footprints activity, if the colour of Mrs Beazley’s trousers are anything to go by, on today, Earth Day, this is one school that has definitely gone green.

19 04, 2016

Dinosaur Workshops from a Teaching Assistant Perspective

By Mike|2023-04-18T12:22:43+01:00April 19th, 2016|Early Years Foundation Reception, General Teaching|Comments Off on Dinosaur Workshops from a Teaching Assistant Perspective

Teaching Assistants Praise Everything Dinosaur

A fairly local dinosaur workshop for Everything Dinosaur this morning, a visit to a Reception class in Cheshire, so not too early a start for our dinosaur experts. We have visited this particular primary school on numerous occasions, delivering tactile fossil exploring sessions with the Reception-aged children as they are beginning the transition from free flow play to more task orientated learning. It is always a pleasure to visit schools such as this, to meet the enthusiastic teaching team and to see the well-resourced classrooms packed full of examples of the children’s work.

Children and Dinosaurs – A Great Learning Combination

Colourful prehistoric animals on display.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Feedback from the Teaching Team

As part of Everything Dinosaur’s continuous improvement strategy, we ask for feedback from teachers, teaching assistants and learning support providers. We are always looking to see how we can improve our dinosaur workshops in schools to help maximise learning.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

Below is a copy of the teaching feedback received today:

Five Stars for Dinosaur Workshop (Typical Workshop Feedback)

Every review posted is genuine feedback from a member of the teaching team.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Glad to see our work is so very much appreciated.

The Teaching Assistant wrote:

“This was an excellent session. Mike [the Everything Dinosaur workshop leader], kept the class completely engaged and involved, they enjoyed learning with him. Mike is obviously incredibly knowledgeable and a particularly well-skilled presenter. Mike’s reputation in school is amazing and well deserved. Thank you!”

To learn more about Everything Dinosaur’s work with Reception-aged children and to contact us to request a quotation: Contact Everything Dinosaur

18 04, 2016

Reception Teacher Thanks Everything Dinosaur after Special Event

By Mike|2024-05-05T21:54:20+01:00April 18th, 2016|Early Years Foundation Reception, General Teaching|Comments Off on Reception Teacher Thanks Everything Dinosaur after Special Event

Thank You Everything Dinosaur

Last Friday saw Everything Dinosaur up in the Manchester area (north-west England) delivering a series of dinosaur and fossil themed workshops aimed at Reception-aged children. Our visits certainly helped to inspire the three classes at Bowlee Park Community School who had just embarked on their dinosaur term topic. Our objective was to provide a very tactile workshop aimed at both visual and kinaesthetic learners. This well-resourced school had a super “digital den” that we were able to use for the day. It felt quite surreal handling 180-million-year-old Ammonite fossils in such a futuristic setting.

Moving Fossils into the Digital Den at the Start of the Day

Moving the fossils to the digital den for the start of the dinosaur workshop.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Start of the Topic Provocation

Over the course of the day, our dinosaur expert delivered three workshops, each aimed at inspiring pupils and teachers alike. They acted as a provocation to help “kick start” the dinosaur themed term topic. Our workshop and the extra teaching resources we provided proved to be a big hit.

Everything Dinosaur

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

One of the Reception class teachers who had booked us emailed this morning to say:

“Thanks again for your workshops on Friday. Both the children and staff thoroughly enjoyed the sessions and it was a wonderful start to our topic. Also, thank you for taking the time to email me with resources for Tyler. I have passed them onto Miss Pilkington (his teacher), who also sends her thanks.”

What resources did we email over especially for Tyler? A Tylosaurus fact sheet and scale drawing of course.

To contact Everything Dinosaur to request information on our work in schools: Contact Everything Dinosaur

13 04, 2016

Polish Scientists Identify Potential Organic Remains in Beautiful Triassic Fossils

By Mike|2024-05-05T21:52:48+01:00April 13th, 2016|General Teaching, Key Stage 3/4|Comments Off on Polish Scientists Identify Potential Organic Remains in Beautiful Triassic Fossils

Proteins Identified in Blood Vessels

A team of Polish scientists including researchers from the Polish Academy of Sciences have published a paper detailing the potential discovery of organic materials including collagen inside the fossilised bones of ancient reptiles that once roamed the coastline of the Tethys Ocean.

Triassic Fossils Studied

Writing in the on-line, open access journal “PLOS One”, the researchers used a variety of highly sophisticated analytical methods to identify the minute quantities of organic material inside the preserved blood vessels within limb bones of Nothosaurs and preserved within the back bone (centrum) of a bizarre, long-necked reptile (Protanystropheus).

Mineralised Blood Vessels (High Magnification) but Tubular Structure is Maintained

Preserved organic material in Triassic fossils.

Organic matter potentially identified in Triassic vertebrae fossils.

Picture credit: PLOS One

X-ray Photo-electron Spectroscopy (XPS)

The research methods used included X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy (XPS), an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Some of the blood vessels even retained their tubular appearance under extreme magnification, quite remarkable when the fossils have been dated to around 247 million years ago (Early Triassic). This discovery provides the oldest evidence to date of the preservation of complex organic molecules within vertebrate fossils excavated from marine sediments.

For models and replicas of Triassic prehistoric animals and other extinct creatures: CollectA Age of Dinosaurs Popular Figures and Replicas.

Explaining the significance of the team’s findings, one of the authors of the scientific report, Dr Andrzej Boczarowski (Faculty of Earth Science, University of Silesia) said:

“Among other proteins, we managed to find collagen, one of the most important proteins in the bodies of animals in general and vertebrates in particular.”

Members of this research team, had some years earlier, identified potential organic material in the fossilised bones of dinosaurs excavated from sites in the Gobi Desert.

Increasing Evidence from Triassic Fossils

Despite many similar results having been dismissed due to contamination during sampling or due to the presence of bacteria skewing the results, there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that some organic traces of long extinct creatures can persist in the fossil record, especially if the fossilisation process occurs rapidly.

9 04, 2016

Stolen Rare Dinosaur Fossils Repatriated to Mongolia

By Mike|2024-05-05T21:50:06+01:00April 9th, 2016|General Teaching, Key Stage 3/4|Comments Off on Stolen Rare Dinosaur Fossils Repatriated to Mongolia

Victory Against Illegal Fossil Smuggling

A ceremony was held this week in New York to mark the return of twenty-three dinosaur fossils to Mongolia. Investigators from U.S. Immigration and Customs were able to retrieve the illegally smuggled fossils, from Wyoming and from New York, the specimens were handed over to officials representing the Mongolian government.

Dinosaur Fossils

A Fossil of the Basal Horned Dinosaur Protoceratops

Protoceratops – the favourite dinosaur amongst Everything Dinosaur team members.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Removal Fossils from Mongolia

It has been illegal for many years for such important artefacts to leave Mongolia, however, despite stringent attempts by the authorities fossil smuggling, especially dinosaur fossil smuggling is rife. Smugglers, excavators and middle men can earn thousands of U.S. dollars via the black market in rare items such as dinosaur skulls, fossil eggs and dinosaur bones.

One of the exhibits being returned is a beautifully preserved dinosaur nest containing fourteen little dinosaur eggs (see picture below)

A Dinosaur Egg (Theropoda)

A dinosaur egg (believed to be from a theropod dinosaur).

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

For dinosaur models and figures: Dinosaur Models and Figures.

Commenting on the Repatriation

Many of the items have been extensively prepared and mounted ready for display in private collections. Commenting on the success of the fossil recovery operation a spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur stated:

“We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the parties involved in achieving such a successful conclusion to this investigation. International co-operation and understanding is helping to stem the flow of illegal fossils being smuggled out of Mongolia.

The haul also contains the mounted skull of a member of the Tyrannosauridae (Tyrannosaur family), the dinosaur concerned is Alioramus remotus, this lightly-built predator is only known from a few fragmentary, scrappy remains so the return of skull material to Mongolia, permitting scientists to study this fossil in detail is particularly significant.

The Alioramus remotus Skull Being Repatriated to Mongolia

A very toothy tyrannosaurid.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

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

5 04, 2016

Everything Dinosaur to the Rescue

By Mike|2023-04-17T07:30:41+01:00April 5th, 2016|General Teaching|Comments Off on Everything Dinosaur to the Rescue

Everything Dinosaur to the Rescue Helping a Teacher who had been Let Down

Today, we were telephoned by a teacher based in Oxfordshire who had a bit of a problem. She had booked a dinosaur workshop (not us) and they had let her down at the last minute, so she was trying to ring round and find another company to step into the breach at short notice. Unfortunately, all our dinosaur and fossil experts were already booked for the day in question (we tend to get booked up months in advance), but not too worry we set about sorting resources and providing some useful contacts from our vast database of fossil experts and outreach specialists.

Everything Dinosaur

Within twenty minutes of the phone call, we had emailed over information on who to talk to with regards to a dinosaur themed presentation. In addition, the first of our teaching materials all about Mary Anning, ammonites and sharks teeth were emailed across. By 9pm that evening the teacher had received several ideas for her teaching work, including example lesson plans and other helpful items. We even sent over fact sheets and drawing materials to support her scheme of work that involved learning about what fossils tell us about life in the past.

The Children Will be Learning About Ammonites

A stunning fossil of a Jurassic ammonite on display at the London Natural History Museum.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Providing Assistance and Support

We explained that the Everything Dinosaur teaching blog has lots of articles on dinosaur teaching in schools, lesson plan suggestions, features on Mary Anning, learning through creative play and so on. This would also prove to be a valuable and inspirational resource. In addition to the fossil fact sheets and drawing materials we provided a helpful pronunciation guide:

Ammonite (Am-mon-night)
Belemnite (Bel-em-night)
Megalodon shark (Meg-ah-low-don)

After purchasing some useful teaching resources, from the Everything Dinosaur website, Everything Dinosaur something like thirty items of around £18.00 including VAT and first class postage, we emailed over the “she sells sea shells tongue twister” to support teaching about the famous fossil hunter Mary Anning and a helpful pdf document to help the teaching team identify dinosaurs.

What is a Dinosaur? Dinosaurs Defined

The shape of the hip bones help to classify the Dinosauria.

Classifying dinosaurs by the shape of their hip bones.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The grateful teacher emailed to say:
“I have just received all your emails, they look great, these are very useful documents. You have been so helpful.”

Everything Dinosaur is a small team of very dedicated people, if you like our service and the support we provide fellow teachers, perhaps if you are on a teaching forum or network, you could post up our website address: Everything Dinosaur

24 03, 2016

A Beautiful “Librarysaurus”

By Mike|2024-05-05T19:03:22+01:00March 24th, 2016|Early Years Foundation Reception, General Teaching|Comments Off on A Beautiful “Librarysaurus”

Inspiring Young Readers

Whilst on a visit to a primary school in the West Midlands to deliver a series of dinosaur workshops, we had the opportunity to view the well-stocked library. The school, part of The Federation of Abbey Infant and Abbey Junior Schools has been rated as “Good” by the most recent Ofsted inspection.

A Librarysaurus

We were also able to see and admire many examples of the children’s work on display in the uncluttered corridors. Our dinosaur expert had been asked to work with Foundation Stage classes, the day of teaching involved conducting sessions with the three Reception classes as well as working with morning and afternoon Nursery.

Everything Dinosaur stocks a range of dinosaur themed toys and games, all tested and approved by our teaching team: Educational Dinosaur Toys.

The venue was the spacious school hall, which also contained a wonderful library resource.

The Well-Stocked Library in the Primary School

A librarysaurus on show in the school library. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

We were most impressed by the unusual way in which some of the books were stored. Our dinosaur expert nick-named the two dinosaur themed book storage units “Librarysaurus”. A well-stocked, inviting library with dinosaurs can provide the stimulation to young children to explore books, a passion for reading could develop that might last a lifetime. During a break from our dinosaur themed workshops, our expert was able to peruse the shelves, lots of non-fiction and fiction titles for the children to read.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

Ofsted Comments

We noted that in the most recent Ofsted report (focusing on Abbey Infant School), the inspector stated:

“Pupils enter Year 1 with skills slightly above those expected for their age. Due to good quality teaching, they continue to make good progress in Years 1 and 2 and are well-prepared for their move to the juniors. They leave Year 2 with standards above those normally expected for their age in reading, and well above in writing and mathematics.”

Perhaps the dinosaur inspired library furniture helps to enthuse the children. During our visit we observed lots of pre-knowledge being demonstrated by the Foundation Stage children. There was also some examples of applied learning, clearly, under the expert and enthusiastic tutelage of the teaching team the children had enjoyed learning all about dinosaurs.

To learn more about Everything Dinosaur’s outreach work: Contact Everything Dinosaur.