Reception Children Expand Their Vocabularies

The children in the Reception class at Micklehurst All Saints Church Primary (Ashton-under-Lyne), have been learning all about dinosaurs this term and they have been taking part in a wide range of dinosaur and fossil themed activities under the expert supervision of the teaching team.

Whilst on a visit to conduct a workshop with the enthusiastic young learners, a team member from Everything Dinosaur was given the opportunity to admire some of the displays in the classroom which highlight the children’s work.

A Colourful Dinosaur Display with Lots of Labels

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

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

A Dinosaur Display and Engaging Curiosity

One of the key objectives within the statutory framework for the early years foundation stage (EYFS), is to inspire children and to help them develop an enthusiasm for learning.  Dinosaurs inspire children and prehistoric animals such as Tyrannosaurus rex certainly engages their curiosity.  The children were eager to show what they had been doing in class and pointed out the colourful display which included pictures of dinosaurs that they had labelled.

The pupils were keen to demonstrate their knowledge about dinosaurs, even dinosaurs that were omnivores!   A dinosaur themed display dovetails beautifully into the national curriculum, it assists with literacy development and helps to expand vocabularies as well as providing the children with lots of opportunities to express themselves and to explore the properties of materials through creative art.

The dinosaur foot measuring resources we provided linked into the teacher’s scheme of work as the children had been getting used to using measuring cubes and standard units.  We also challenged the class to draw for our dinosaur expert their very own prehistoric animal, as an extension we suggested that the children have a go at measuring their own drawings.  The pronunciation guide we gave the teacher, might come in handy with all those long dinosaur names.

A Dinosaur Den

Part of the classroom had been turned into a dinosaur den.  There were lots of stimulating activities for the children to try, including digging for dinosaur skeletons in sand and lots of books about dinosaurs (fiction and non-fiction), for the children to read.  The dinosaur den was very tidy and well organised.

 A Tidy and Well Organised Dinosaur Den

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Visit the child-friendly Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

Dinosaurs Help Reception Class with Subtraction

Children in the Reception class at Whirley Primary in Cheshire have started a topic all about dinosaurs and fossils.  The eager palaeontologists have been keen to demonstrate their knowledge about prehistoric animals to their enthusiastic teachers.

One of our team members visited the school today to conduct a morning of dinosaur-themed activities with the children.  Prior to the start of the school day, our team member was given a short tour of the well-appointed Foundation Stage/Key Stage 1 teaching area.  Although, the children have only been studying dinosaurs for a short while, there were lots of amazing prehistoric animal-themed learning to admire.

Dinosaurs and Fossils

Counting with Dinosaurs – Dinosaurs Helping Young Minds to Get to Grips with Subtraction

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

A Carefully Planned Scheme of Work

The Reception class are getting to grips with subtraction.  The innovative teaching team had set up a number of work stations around the tidy and spacious classroom and on one table a dinosaur inspired subtraction exercise had been set up.  Could the children work out how many dinosaurs were on one side of the paper compared to the other side of the paper?

Unsurprisingly, gaining confidence with mathematics is one of the key learning and development goals of the Early Years Foundation Stage national curriculum. The children in the Reception class at Whirley Primary are certainly being provided with plenty of opportunities to develop and improve their counting skills.

During our workshop we set the children a special challenge, could they draw their very own dinosaur and label the body parts including the skull?  As well as supporting the literacy component of the topic area, our dinosaur expert suggested that the class could use measuring cubes to measure the size of the dinosaur drawing that they produced.

A Successfully Completed Dinosaur Inspired Subtraction Exercise

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Learning to Recall

Whilst our team member was admiring the special dinosaur activity area where the children could dig for dinosaur bones and fossils in a sand tray, the teacher (Miss Egerton), highlighted some of the work the children had produced in their topic books.  As an introduction to the topic, the children had taken part in a dinosaur egg hunt, one of the exercises in the topic book involved the recalling of information and putting events in chronological order.

Learning to Recall and Retell with a Reception Class

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

It looks like the dinosaur and fossil themed term topic is proving to be a big success.

The Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

Reception Class Have a Dinosaur Egg

The children in the Reception classes at Lum Head Primary (Cheshire), have been busy looking after two dinosaur eggs.  The topic for the spring term is focused around dinosaurs and entitled “We are explorers an egg-citing discovery!”  The enthusiastic teaching team with the support of the dedicated learning support providers, have developed a rich and engaging scheme of work centred around the discovery of a dinosaur egg in each classroom.

The Dinosaur Egg is About to Hatch!

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Visit the Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

Dinosaur Workshop with Reception Classes

Children in the two Reception classes at Lum Head Primary have been waiting for their two dinosaur eggs to hatch.  They have built a nest and worked out what the baby dinosaur needs to keep it safe and warm.  Our dinosaur expert visited the school to deliver two workshops helping to kick-off this exciting topic.

The teacher who organised the visit from Everything Dinosaur emailed to thank us for our efforts, she wrote:

“Thank you for today. The children absolutely loved it and were buzzing all day!!  Thanks too for all the additional resources you left us – we will definitely be using them”.

To learn about Everything Dinosaur’s fossil and dinosaur themed workshops in school, and about our outreach work: simply drop us an email: Email Everything Dinosaur.