Year 1 Pupils Produce High Quality Writing

A return visit today to Winnington Park Primary School in Cheshire to work with Year 1 and Everything Dinosaur mentioned by Ofsted.  This is the second time that a member of the Everything Dinosaur teaching team has visited this school.  Our last visit was in June 2014 to help reinforce learning and summarise the teaching work undertaken as the children had studied all things dinosaur over the summer term.

Studying Dinosaurs and Fossils

Today’s activities were a provocation, helping to motivate and enthuse, as the children had just started studying dinosaurs and fossils.  However, the pupils displayed a remarkable degree of knowledge and applied learning, even at this early stage of the term topic.  Under the expert tutelage of the teaching team, the children had been creating fact books all about dinosaurs and learning how to tell plant-eaters and meat-eaters apart.  We helped the eager, budding young palaeontologists explore fossils and dinosaurs, leaving them with an extension activity that involved measuring and comparing different sets of dinosaur footprints.

Year 1 Have Been Painting Various Prehistoric Animals

The Kelenken in all its glory.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Everything Dinosaur Mentioned in Ofsted Report

The day after our dinosaur workshop last year, this school had an Ofsted inspection.  The overall rating was “Good” for the school and the inspectors highlighted some outstanding teaching, the visit from our dinosaur expert “Dinosaur Mike” to the school the day before the inspection was discussed and the Ofsted inspectors commented that most of the children had made good progress and produced short pieces of good quality hand writing.

Everything Dinosaur Mentioned In Ofsted Report

Lots of examples of hand-writing on display.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Commenting on the benefits of a school visit from a company like Everything Dinosaur, the report states:

“Pupils enjoy writing, especially when it is linked to a visit, or a school visitor.  This was the case in a Year 1 English class where pupils were talking and writing about a recent visit from “Dinosaur Mike”.  Most pupils made good progress and produced short pieces of writing of high quality.  One pupil was able to explain that “Dinosaur Mike is a palaeontologist.”

A themed dinosaur workshop with Year 1 has certainly helped to motivate and inspire the young learners.

Some of the prehistoric animals used in the teaching sessions can be found here on the Everything Dinosaur website: Prehistoric Animal Models, Toys and Gifts.

Dinosaur Timeline Poster – A Great Educational Resource

Measuring a generous forty-two centimetres by fifty-nine and a half centimetres (42 cm x 59.5 cm), the dinosaur timeline poster provides helpful teaching support when it comes to identifying the length of the geological periods during the time of the dinosaurs and which prehistoric animals lived when.

The Dinosaur Timeline Poster

The excellent dinosaur timeline poster.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Dinosaur Timeline Poster

Each geological period, the Triassic, Jurassic and the Cretaceous is beautifully illustrated and each scene depicts typical animals and plants that existed during that part of our planet’s history.  In total, thirty prehistoric animals are picked out on the handy poster key and this poster is a valuable teaching resource when it comes to showing children how the world has changed.

To view the range of educational prehistoric animal themed posters available: Everything Dinosaur – Posters, Toys and Gifts.

Poster Themed Teaching Activities

1. Block out the key using postage notes that have been cut so that they obscure the information about the length of the geological periods, challenge the class to research independently the age, length and order of the geological time periods.  Compare their answers with the information given out on the poster. Why does the length of the geological periods vary?  Over what time period in millions of years does the poster refer to- A great exercise for exploring the concept of deep time that dovetails into the section of the curriculum involving rocks and fossils.
2. What similarities and differences can the children see in the animals and plants depicted in each scene?
3. Can the children identify herbivores, carnivores and omnivores?
4. What is the significance of the flowering plants/mammals/birds in the dinosaur timeline poster?
5. Can the children write a story based on what they can see in the prehistoric scenes?

The poster is ideal for a dinosaur museum in a classroom or to be used as part of a classroom display and this dinosaur timeline poster is recommended by Everything Dinosaur and it retails at less than £2.30 plus post and packing!

The Triassic Scene from the Dinosaur Timeline Poster

Triassic scene from the dinosaur timeline poster.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Girl Palaeonlogist Rag Doll –  Encouraging Girls into Science

Everything Dinosaur is delighted to support science professionals and their assistants/colleagues who are keen to celebrate the role of women in archaeology, palaeontology and geology.  We at Everything Dinosaur have been lucky enough to met and work with some amazing female scientists and it is great to see a child’s doll on the market that encourages girls to explore the wonderful world of rocks and fossils.  Meet a girl palaeontologist rag doll, a modern-day Mary Anning.

A Palaeontologist Soft Toy is Available from Everything Dinosaur

A prehistoric themed soft toy, a girl palaeontologist rag doll.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Girl Palaeontologist Rag Doll

The girl palaeontologist rag doll stands 30 cm high and she is obviously equipped for some series fossil hunting with her sturdy jacket, with plenty of pockets and fossil collectors cap.  This rag doll comes with a theropod dinosaur fossil to find and we are sure that this young lady is going to have some amazing fossil collecting adventures.

To view the girl palaeontologist rag doll and other educational, prehistoric animal themed soft toys: Soft Toy Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals.

Everything Dinosaur team members first came across this item several months ago, we have met some of the people behind her production and it is great to see a role model such as this for girls.

When we were puzzling over the name for this new doll, it was pointed out to us, very aptly by an eleven year old girl, that the name “Lottie” can be found in the word:

 PALAEONTOLOGIST.

Perhaps, we call this rag doll “Lottie”, however, the word “Ali” or “Isla” would also be fitting as these names too, can be constructed from the term “palaeontologist”.

The fossil hunter rag doll is recommended by Everything Dinosaur for its creative, imaginative play value and for the way it helps to challenge outmoded stereotypes when it comes to careers.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Visit Everything Dinosaur’s Website.

Combe Down Year 6 Classes Study Life in the Past

Children in Year 6 (classes 6RH and 6W), have been learning all about life in the past and natural selection.  With the likes of Stonehenge on their doorstep, the school in the pretty village of Combe Down is surrounded by evidence of Stone Age and Bronze Age settlements.  The children have been studying life in the past and making some wonderful charcoal impressions of cave paintings as well as some very realistic prehistoric jewellery.

Life in the Past

Stone Age Studies for School Pupils

“Stomp, stomp, roar”! The class make books about dinosaurs. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

These studies helped the students as they are now going on to study evolution and natural selection whilst in Upper Key Stage 2.  Both classes in Year 6 will be studying evolution and a visit from Everything Dinosaur provided a perfect provocation to help kick the topic off.  The teaching team too, were grateful for the visit from Everything Dinosaur.

Dinosaur Workshop

The fossil expert was able to provide a foundation for the children’s studies and to point out to them that their school was made from limestone formed during the Jurassic (Bathonian limestone).  Year 6 certainly enjoyed their evolution workshop and Everything Dinosaur promised to send onto the school addition resources linked to extinction and habitat change so that the teachers could undertake some exciting extension activities.

Contact Everything Dinosaur to see the range of models, toys and gifts: Everything Dinosaur.