Dinosaur Workshops at All Saints’ C of E Primary School (Stockport)

Back in February, one of the fossil experts at Everything Dinosaur visited All Saints’ Primary (Marple, Stockport, Cheshire), to conduct a couple of dinosaur themed workshops with the children in Key Stage 1.  Over the course of the morning, the Year 1 and Year 2 children were given lots of challenges as part of our support for the diverse and very enriched scheme of work the teaching team had devised for the term topic.

Writing Thank You Letters

One of the challenges we set was for the children to write a thank you letter.  Thank you letters provide an excellent opportunity for the children to practice their hand-writing as well as helping to reinforce what the children learned and could recall from the workshop we provided.

Bella has Sent Everything Dinosaur a Thank You Letter

Bella’s thank you letter to Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Dinosaur Workshop

Bella wrote to say that her favourite part was learning all about Tyrannosaurus rex and holding all the fossils.  Bella recalled that when you first touch real fossils they feel cold and that T. rex had two fingers on each hand.

Oliver’s Thank You Letter

Oliver says thank you.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Oliver included a picture of a brown coloured Triceratops on the back of his thank you missive.  In his letter he explained he liked learning how old fossils were.  A letter writing activity such as this provides school children with an opportunity to learn how to lay out a letter in the correct format as well as getting to grips with sentence construction.  Oliver demonstrated lots of lovely finger spacing between his words and he kept his writing in between the lines beautifully.

Ava’s Thank You Letter Sent into Our Office

Ava’s thank you letter to Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Children Send in Thank You Letters

Ava included a lovely drawing in with her letter, lots of smiling faces.  A special thank you to Jacob, Henry, Kieran, Ava, Tyler, Leila, Edward, Oliver, Brooke, Jack, James, Bella, Charlie, Kelan, Kieran, Isla, Louie, Freya, Lilly, Isaac, Ethan, Jude, Finley, Lois, Erin, Soren, Katie and to all the children involved.

Lois wrote to say:

“Thank you for letting me see the fossils and thank you for the stickers.”

You are most welcome, a special thank you from all the team members at Everything Dinosaur to all the children who sent letters into us.  Also a big Iguanodon thumbs up to the enthusiastic teaching team who helped us on the day and inspired the children to produce the letters.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

Well done to all!  Pleased to hear that everyone loved our dinosaur workshop for Key Stage 1.

Dragons and Dinosaurs

Whilst in the West Midlands visiting Oasis Academy Short Heath to deliver a pair of dinosaur workshops, Everything Dinosaur’s fossil expert was given the opportunity to view some amazing dragon models made by pupils and parents.  The children in Year 1 at the Academy are studying dinosaurs for the remainder of the Spring Term and as part of the exciting scheme of work that had been devised for them, Everything Dinosaur had been invited into the school to provide dinosaur workshops for each class.

An area of the large and well appointed school hall used by the Breakfast Club had been made available for Everything Dinosaur to use, but a good portion of the rest of it had been dedicated to displaying some amazing dragon models that parents and pupils had made as part of a week of learning all about these mythical creatures.

Dragon Models on Display at Oasis Academy Short Heath

Dragons on display.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Dinosaurs and Dragons

Legends and stories about dragons can be found in many cultures.  However, they are principally associated with China.  It is thought that the discovery of dinosaur bones and teeth gave rise to the dragon myth.  Fossils, including those of dinosaurs, have been weathering out of rocks for millions of years.  Parts of China have particularly rich fossil deposits and it is likely that the discovery of these strange and often immense objects were explained away as being the long dead remains of dragons – how close to the truth they were!

Dragon Myth Probably Inspired by Dinosaur Fossil Finds

The dragon myth was very probably inspired by the discovery of dinosaur fossils.

The First Documented Fossil Find

The children in Year 1, learning all about dinosaurs and fossils might hear about the discoveries made by Mary Anning, or perhaps the work on dinosaurs carried out by Sir Richard Owen or Gideon Mantell.  However, the first record of a dinosaur fossil discovery dates back more than seventeen hundred years.  The first description of a probable dinosaur fossil bone discovery can be found in a book written around 300 AD by the Chinese scholar Chang Qu.  He describes the finding of “dragon bones” at Wucheng, in what is now Sichuan Province (south-western China).

Perhaps the First Written Record of a Dinosaur Fossil Discovery

The first written record of a dinosaur fossil discovery.

Sichuan Province is now famous for its dinosaur discoveries and a number of dinosaur genera have been named from fossil discoveries theropods, armoured dinosaurs and numerous sauropods including perhaps the most famous of all the Sichuan Province dinosaurs Shunosaurus “Sichuan Province Lizard”.

A Model of Shunosaurus (Wild Safari Prehistoric World Shunosaurus)

Available from Everything Dinosaur – Shunosaurus.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view the complete range of Wild Safari Prehistoric Animal models including the Shunosaurus replica: Wild Safari Prehistoric World Figures.