Dinosaur Designs

As 2016 draws to a close, team members at Everything Dinosaur can reflect on all the teaching work that they have carried out over the last twelve months.  Our work in schools may be just about finished for the year, but we are still responding to emails and phone calls from teachers advising them on next term’s dinosaur topic.

Schoolchildren Design Dinosaurs

The teaching itinerary may be completely full for the Spring Term, next week will see us sending out emails to schools to finalise the arrangements for January’s teaching dates, but we are still supporting those schools and classes that we visited in November, helping the teaching team to maximise the benefits from one of our dinosaur workshops in school.

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A Thank You Letter from Cyprian

A “Cypyensores” created by Cyprian (Year 2/3).

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Thank You Letters

Take for example, one of our recent visits to work with a mixed class of Year 2/3 children.  During our dinosaur and fossil themed workshop, we set the class a number of our “pinkie palaeontologist” challenges.  We asked the children to send us a thank you letter.  This provides the teacher with a great opportunity to introduce a dinosaur-themed writing exercise.

The picture above shows one such thank you letter, sent into Everything Dinosaur from Cyprian.  If the children had questions that we had not been able to answer during our morning of dinosaur and prehistoric animal themed teaching activities, we suggested that they might want to include the question within their letter.

This gives the teaching team the opportunity to check appropriate use of grammar and punctuation.  It also provides a wonderful opportunity for the children to practice their cursive hand-writing, a key requirement of the English element of the national curriculum for this age group.

A Dinosaur Design by Lois

Lois and her green, plant-eating dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Designing Dinosaurs

During the workshop with this mixed class of Year 2/3 children, we asked the class to have a go at designing their very own dinosaur.  This permitted us to help reinforce the teacher’s scheme of work which included reference to simple food chains, habitats and the idea of extinction events.  Cyprian designed a “Cypyensores”, whilst Lois, one of his classmates, opted to produce a green, plant-eating dinosaur, with lots of lovely labels to help describe this dinosaur and to indicate what it might have needed to survive if this dinosaur had lived millions of years ago.

The class teacher commented:

“Thank you so much for coming to visit us on Friday, I really hope you enjoyed your time at our school.  All of the children really enjoyed meeting you and learning some amazing information about the dinosaurs.  It was a great discussion point for my class, which carried on until home time!”

To enquire about Everything Dinosaur’s outreach work: Email Everything Dinosaur.

Year 2/3AP Say Thank You

Back on the 18th November, one of our team members visited Pebble Brook Primary in Cheshire to undertake a series of dinosaur and fossil themed workshops with three classes.  We challenged Miss Pestell’s class to write to our offices and send us thank you letters.  Could the inspired pupils compose thank you letters after the dinosaur workshop?

We wanted to see lots of careful hand-writing with sentences starting with capital letters and proper use of punctuation.  Sure enough, yesterday afternoon the postman arrived and handed over a big red envelope which when opened, was found to contain lots of lovely letters from the children.

Thank You Letters after a Dinosaur Workshop

What a Lovely Set of Thank You Letters from 2/3AP

Year 2/3AP sent in thank you letters to Everything Dinosaur after our fossil workshop.  Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To contact Everything Dinosaur team members: Email Team Members at Everything Dinosaur.

Drawings of Dinosaurs

During our dinosaur workshop, we asked the eager, young palaeontologists to imagine designing their very own dinosaur.  The children chose to illustrate their letters to us with some of their dinosaur creations.  Our dinosaur expert wanted to see lots of labelling on the diagrams and the children certainly obliged, well done Year 2/3AP.  Young Alfie even put a drawing of “Dinosaur Mike” next to his dinosaur so that he could show the scale, that’s a really good idea.

Alfie’s Letter Included a Prehistoric Animal Drawing That Used “Dinosaur Mike” for Scale

Alfie’s thank you letter.  Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

A number of the children, including Ashlea, Luke and Adam wanted to know how we find all the fossils?  Well, it takes patience and you have to visit places such as beaches where fossils are being washed out of the cliffs, then you simply explore the beach area picking up and examining any strange shaped objects you might find amongst the stones and gravel.

Questions About Tyrannosaurus rex

Sometimes, we have to dig out dinosaur bones using excavators and shovels, but when we get close to the bone we take great care and use much smaller tools such as fine chisels and brushes to carefully free the fossil from the surrounding rock.   If the children of class 2/3AP found a complete fossil of a Tyrannosaurus rex buried in their playground and they all worked eight hours a day, seven days a week it could take more than three years to excavate the fossilised bones, clean them all and prepare them for display in a museum!

Mia asked how much does a T. rex weigh?  Another good question, we estimate that a fully-grown T. rex would weigh around seven tonnes, that’s heavier than more than 250 Year 2 pupils!  Some children asked how big was a T. rex skull?  Recently, palaeontologists discovered a Tyrannosaurus rex skull in America, when it has been dug out and put together it is likely to measure more than 1.2 metres long.

A Super Thank You Letter Sent in by Anita

A thank you letter to Everything Dinosaur from Anita.  Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Several of the children impressed with their joined-up hand-writing and we really like the spiky dinosaur that Anita drew for us.  To answer your question Anita, T. rex was a meat-eater, whilst Stegosaurus was a plant-eater, can the children in Year 2/3AP remember the word used by scientists to describe a meat-eater C_R_IV_RE?  Can they remember the word used to describe plant-eaters H_RB_V__E?

A Thank You Letter from Ruby

Ruby’s thank you letter.  Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Lots and Lots of Questions

Andrea asked what age our dinosaur expert was when he found his first fossils?  He was eight-years-old, when he found his first fossils on a trip to the seaside.  Lucie and Patricia asked how many fossils have we got?  To be honest Patricia and Lucie, we have never stopped to count them all, we must have a few thousand in total.

Our thanks to Andrei, Ryan, Cyprian and Lois and to the whole of class 2/3AP for their super dinosaur designs.  We enjoyed looking at all the prehistoric animal drawings and we loved reading all the wonderful letters.  A big T. rex roar with delight to all the children in Year 2/3AP and a special thank you from us to Miss Pestell for being such an inspiring teacher.

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Key Stage 1 Study Dinosaurs, Volcanoes and Fossils

Children in the three Key Stage 1 classes at Carrfield Primary Academy (south Yorkshire), have spent the second half of the autumn term learning all about dinosaurs, prehistoric animals, volcanoes and fossils.  Working with the Cornerstones curriculum, the dedicated teaching team have been exploring all things prehistoric under the “Dinosaur Planet” scheme of work.  The well-appointed and tidy classrooms have lots of amazing dinosaur themed examples of the children’s work on display.  In class 1HJ, the budding young palaeontologists have been learning about bones and parts of the body by creating their very own dinosaur skeletons.

Studying Prehistoric Animals

Dinosaur Skeletons on Display

Carefully crafted dinosaur skeletons on display in a Year 1 classroom.

Picture credit: Carrfield Primary Academy/Everything Dinosaur

Dinosaur Fact Flaps

Outside of the Year 1 classroom, the teaching team have posted up “dinosaur fact flaps” featuring a massive Brachiosaurus, the plant-eating horned dinosaur Triceratops and the tiny, feathered meat-eater Microraptor.  Some excellent examples of non-fiction writing accompany the informative dinosaur posters.

Class 1HJ Posted Up Lots of Dinosaur Information

Dinosaur facts and figures posted up by the Year 1 class at Carrfield Primary Academy.

Picture credit: Carrfield Primary Academy/Everything Dinosaur

Dinosaur Explorers in Class 1/2LD

Under the inspiration tutelage of the teaching team, the children in the mixed Year 1/2 class have been creating dinosaur themed story maps all about their favourite prehistoric animals.  We hope the tongue-twister we provided on the famous fossil hunter Mary Anning inspires the children to write their own prehistoric animal themed poetry.

Lots of Schematic Story Maps on Display in the 1/2LD Classroom

Schematic story maps are a great way to check understanding and learning.

Picture credit: Carrfield Primary Academy/Everything Dinosaur

Demonstrating Evidence of Learning

Being able to demonstrate evidence of learning as the children progress through a term topic is extremely important.   These schematic story maps are a great way to check understanding and to test the children’s ability to recall information.  Outside in the corridor, the pupils in 1/2LD have been looking at baby dinosaurs and studying dinosaur eggs.  Paper mâché models of the eggs of dinosaurs had been created and if you look inside, you can see the baby dinosaurs waiting to hatch.

Key Stage 1 Children Look at Dinosaur Eggs

“Out of the Egg” display by Year 1/2 children.

Picture credit: Carrfield Primary Academy/Everything Dinosaur

The paper mâché models certainly made an “egg-citing” display.  The children had also constructed volcanoes out of plastic bottles and paper mâché.  Mums, dads, grandparents and guardians had been invited into the school to help the volcanoes erupt!

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

Year 2 Combine Learning About Three-Dimensional Shapes with Dinosaur Studies

The teacher in Year 2 with the help of the enthusiastic teaching assistants had been explaining about three-dimensional shapes.  The challenge set was could the class create a Tyrannosaurus rex out of cylinders, cubes and cones?

A 3-D Tyrannosaurus rex on Display Outside of 2CN Classroom

A three-dimensional dinosaur helps children to learn about spheres, cylinders, cubes and cones.

Picture credit: Carrfield Primary Academy/Everything Dinosaur

The children made some three-dimensional dinosaur teeth out of clay, they could compare their clay teeth to the dinosaur teeth we showed the children in the workshop.  What sort of three-dimensional shapes are the teeth of dinosaurs?

We provided lots of extension ideas and suggestions plus some extra resources to help the teachers with their lesson plans as they bring this exciting dinosaur themed topic, a topic that has been thoroughly enjoyed by the teaching team as well as the children, to a conclusion.

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Dinosaurs and Fossils with Year 2/3

For the children in the three classes of Year 2/3 at Pebble Brook Primary School, the autumn term has been dedicated to learning all about prehistoric life.  Over the last eight weeks or so, the dedicated teaching team have introduced a wide range of cross-curricular activities all linked to learning about dinosaurs, prehistoric animals and the Stone Age.

Prehistoric Life

As part of the challenging scheme of work that had been devised, the children were asked to make a dinosaur themed model over the half-term break.  A member of the Everything Dinosaur team visiting the school had the opportunity to view some of the amazing dinosaurs and prehistoric scenes the children had created.

On Display Outside the Year 2/3 Classrooms – Prehistoric Scenes

Dinosaur and prehistoric scenes outside the classrooms.

Picture credit: Pebble Brook Primary School/Everything Dinosaur

The collection of prehistoric landscapes and dinosaur dioramas made a very attractive exhibit and several of the children’s models were used in a special assembly following our dinosaur and fossil workshop.  The Year 2/3 children presented some of the fascinating facts that they had learned about dinosaurs to other classes as well as the mums and dads.

A Very Sparkly Dinosaur Created as a Half-term Project

A very sparkly armoured dinosaur spotted in Year 2/3 AP classroom.

Picture credit: Pebble Brook Primary School/Everything Dinosaur

Fiction and Non-fiction Writing Exercises

The well-appointed classrooms highlighted lots of fiction and non-fiction writing exercises and each of the three classrooms had a special “wow wall” with a wonderful dinosaur and Stone Age people illustration surrounded by lots of topic themed words to help the budding young palaeontologists expand their vocabularies.

A colourful dinosaur and cavemen display board.

Picture credit: Pebble Brook Primary School/Everything Dinosaur

For creative, dinosaur themed toys and gifts: Prehistoric Animal Themed Toys and Gifts.

Carnivores, Omnivores and Herbivores

The children were keen to demonstrate their knowledge and they enthusiastically explained the foods that carnivores, omnivores and herbivores ate, all linking nicely into that part of the Year 2 science programme in the English national curriculum that relates to living things and their habitats.  In addition, the Year 3 children enjoyed learning about the properties of fossils, which dove-tails into the lower Key Stage 2 science programme that covers soils, rocks and fossils.

Exploring Life in the Past

A dinosaur and cavemen themed display board.

Picture credit: Pebble Brook Primary School/Everything Dinosaur

Measuring Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Life

All three classes would be getting to grips with the use of rulers for measuring in the very near future, the extension activity we provided which involves measuring and comparing the footprints of different dinosaurs should work well with the teaching team’s lesson plans.  The dinosaur coprolite certainly proved to be very popular and it helped reinforce the children’s learning after they had examined some “dinosaur poo” in a previous classroom activity.

Mini “Jurassic Worlds” on Display

Several prehistoric scenes on display outside the classroom.

Picture credit: Pebble Brook Primary School/Everything Dinosaur

Everything Dinosaur and a Dinosaur Workshop

All too soon, it was time to leave the enthusiastic pupils and their dedicated teachers.  However, we did set the children a special challenge.  As they had lots of questions and since we were unable to address them all during the day, it was suggested that the children could write into our office or email us and we would do our best to provide them with answers.  This provided yet another non-fiction writing activity for the children to undertake, as well as giving the teachers the opportunity to explore the differences between writing a letter and sending an email with their pupils.

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