Lots of Teachers Already Preparing for the New Academic Year

For many schools in England and Wales, the long summer holidays are about to start.  Although many teaching staff will be taking a deserved vacation, we note from the number of emails, phone calls and general enquiries that we have received that lots of dedicated teaching professionals are well advanced with their planning for dinosaur and fossil teaching the start of the next academic year.

September will soon come around and teachers supported by teaching assistants and other learning support providers will be busying themselves making preparations for the challenges that a new academic year brings.  From the enquiries that we have received so far this month, it seems that the Cornerstones Curriculum “Dinosaur Planet” and the term topic “Jurassic Forest” are going to be popular choices when it comes to Key Stage 1 and Reception term topics.

Lots of Schools are Planning Term Topics Focused Around Dinosaurs and Fossils

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Preparing Prehistoric Themed Schemes of Work

As always, our dedicated teaching team are on hand to provide advice and assistance.  There are numerous downloadable resources available from Everything Dinosaur’s dedicated teaching website, all provided free of charge.  Our handy lesson plans, resource packs, teaching suggestions and information sheets have been downloaded by teachers, educationalists, museums and other institutions hundreds of times.  We are happy to help and we get a large amount of emails from teachers asking for specific information, these are all responded to and we do our best to assist and advise where we can.

For Everything Dinosaur’s educational themed items including toys and games: Dinosaur Toys and Games.

Lesson Plans Helped to Inspire a Poster Making Exercise

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Dinosaur and Fossil Workshops in School

Our dinosaur and fossil workshops in schools are booking up fast, we already have bookings for the summer term of 2019 and enquiries for the 2019/20 academic year.  We conduct a lot of work with schools and our workshops are built around curriculum teaching aims and objectives including developing writing skills, aiding literacy, exploring ideas, problem solving, working scientifically, building confidence and encouraging an understanding of materials and the wider world.

There is certainly a big “wow” factor with a visit from ourselves but everything we do attempts to reinforce learning and help achieve the teaching outcomes required by the school.  Dinosaurs as a teaching theme lends itself to all sorts of ideas and extension activities and we often provide additional resources to help support the school’s scheme of work.

For further information about our dinosaur workshops in schools and to request details of our science outreach work: Contact Everything Dinosaur.

Our hard-working team members will do all they can to accommodate teaching needs, but, spaces are getting booked up fast.

Thank You Letters Received After Another Successful Dinosaur Workshop

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Visit the Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

A Very Big Trilobite

The Wren’s Nest/Castle Hill site near Dudley in the West Midlands is one of the most important sites anywhere in the world for Silurian fossils.  At this location there are superb exposures of Middle Silurian strata (Wenlock and lower Ludlow series).  Coal seams in the surrounding hills date from the later Middle Carboniferous.  The lime and coal at this location made this part of England a focal point for the industrial revolution.

There are lots of fossils to be found too, including trilobites.

A Commemorative Plaque Recognising the Significance of Wren’s Nest

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

For models and replicas of iconic animals from the fossil record including trilobite models: Learning – Replicas of Fossils and Models of Prehistoric Animals.

Part of the motif is an inscription it reads:

“Scour the ground for geological litter my feet drenched in an ancient sea.”

The fossils preserved at Wren’s Nest represent marine life on an ancient reef system which is around 420 to 425 million years old.  This an amazing (and free) place to visit, a beautiful nature reserve that was designated Britain’s first National Nature Reserve for geology back in 1956.

Visit the Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

Delicious Dinosaur Birthday Cake

Our thanks and best wishes to Athina and Peter who contacted Everything Dinosaur recently to ask advice when choosing some dinosaur and prehistoric animal models to feature on their grandson’s birthday cake.  The grandparents emailed us to say thank you for our assistance and included a picture of the magnificent birthday cake that had been baked and decorated with dinosaurs in honour of young Luca’s birthday.

A Dinosaur Birthday Cake

What a Magnificent Dinosaur Birthday Cake!

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Athina commented:

“The cake was a big success, thanks for your help.”

What a wonderful cake!  Team members at Everything Dinosaur are always intrigued to find out how our dinosaurs and prehistoric animals are used by our customers.  One question remains, how are Athina and Peter going to top this wonderful confectionery creation when it comes to Luca’s 5th birthday?

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

In Praise of the Museum of Natural History (Oxford)

Oxford as the county town of Oxfordshire (England), has many attractions.  It is of course, famous for its distinguished and highly respected university.  It is one of the oldest seats of learning (alongside Paris and Bologna), in the western world.  The Victorian poet Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), coined the phrase “the city of dreaming spires”, it is indeed a very awe-inspiring place with its beautiful architecture and stunning university colleges and buildings.

Oxford Museum of Natural History

However, Oxford should not necessarily just be the haunt of academics and students.  For families, there is much to see and do in this historic part of England.  Take for example, the Museum of Natural History, it is free to enter (donations are suggested) and it provides a fantastic day out for young and old alike.

A View of the Ground Floor of the Natural History Museum (Oxford)

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The image (above) shows marine reptile fossils on display.

For models and replicas of marine reptiles and other prehistoric creatures: Prehistoric Animal Models and Figures.

Oxford Stunning Architecture

The museum acts as a centre for scientific study for the University of Oxford.  It houses the University’s collection of palaeontological, geological and zoological specimens, including some of the very first dinosaur bones to be scientifically studied.  This collection is housed in a stunning example of neo-Gothic architecture, the ornate columns and use of copious amounts of glass provides a wonderfully spacious and well-lit learning area.  With visitor numbers estimated to be around 700,000 people a year, this well-laid out and beautifully appointed museum can get quite busy at times, but please note, the Natural History Museum (London), attracts approximately 5,000,000 visitors per annum.  The London museum can get extremely congested, in contrast, the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH), especially shortly after opening at 10 am tends to be much quieter.

Founded in 1860

Founded in 1860, that’s twenty-one years before the Natural History Museum (London) opened its doors, the OUMNH has maintained its strong tradition to inform and educate and helps to underpin a varied programme of scientific research as well as playing a significant role in teaching.  The Museum provides an extensive array of family orientated activities and if over the course of the summer holidays, you have a few hours to spare this museum is well-worth a visit.

Look out for the cast of a male Tyrannosaurus rex, a life-sized model of a Coelacanth, some amazing fossil specimens, live insects and of course, arguably the OUMNH’s most famous resident – the remains of a Dodo.

In the meantime, visit the award-winning Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

Giant Ammonites – Potentially Under Your Feet

Ammonites are closely related to extant squids and octopi (cephalopods).   Ammonite fossils can be collected from many sites around the world, including numerous locations in the UK. Often, an ammonite fossil shell is the first discovery of a young fossil hunter, a find that can lead to a lifetime of fossil collecting.

The Simple Pleasure of Finding an Ammonite Fossil

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Titanites giganteus

Whilst on a visit to the Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy (London), a team member of Everything Dinosaur took a photograph of a giant ammonite fossil (Titanites giganteus) in one of the glass display cases.

A Giant Ammonite Specimen at the Museum

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

This is a relatively small specimen, measuring around forty centimetres in diameter.  The biggest specimens of this ammonite species have shells more than a metre across.  University College London is built from Portland Stone, a limestone formed in tropical seas in the Late Jurassic around 146 million years ago.  This stone is quarried from the Isle of Portland in Dorset and is used all over the world for building projects.  Some of the ammonite specimens that have been collected were huge, with shells much bigger than the one in the Grant Museum.

The one photographed by an Everything Dinosaur team member, could represent a relatively young animal or perhaps a male (female ammonites are believed to have been much larger than males).

Giant Ammonites on Display

The helpful information in the display case explains that visitors to London can see a rare example of a fossil Titanites ammonite in building stones outside the Slade School of Fine Art in the University’s Main Quad.  In the paving are slices of preserved whorls, each one is a slice through the same fossil.  Hundreds of people walk over this fossil every day, we wonder how many of them notice?

For models and replicas of ammonites and other iconic fossil animals: Models of Iconic Fossil Animals.

Stepping Over a Giant Ammonite

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Visit the Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.