Teaching - Part 42

4 03, 2016

Year 1 and Dinosaurs

By Mike|2023-04-13T21:46:52+01:00March 4th, 2016|Categories: General Teaching, Key Stage 1/2|Comments Off on Year 1 and Dinosaurs

Mobberley Primary School and Dinosaurs

It was a big day today for the children in Key Stage 1 at Mobberley C.E. Primary! Not only was the entire school celebrating World Book Day but Year 1 had a special morning of dinosaur themed teaching activities to help kick-start their term topic all about prehistoric animals. The workshop we delivered was designed to link into the scheme of work that had been put together by the class teacher with the help and support of the teaching assistants.

Dinosaur Workshop

Learning all about dinosaurs and animals that lived in the past provides plenty of opportunities for both fiction and non-fiction writing and the eager, young palaeontologists from Year 1 demonstrated lots of amazing pre-knowledge. Rufus was able to identify Ankylosaurus and Zack explained how ammonites used gas to help them float around in the sea. The girls got in on the fun too. They learned a “super fact” all about T. rex that made their day.

For models and replicas of T. rex and other dinosaurs: Wild Safari Prehistoric World.

Digging for Dinosaurs in the Classroom

A dinosaur dig sand pit.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur/Mobberley C. E. Primary School

Year 1 and Dinosaurs

We provided some extension ideas to help support confidence with numbers and challenged Miss Dalton to learn the Mary Anning tongue twister that we emailed across. There was even a special “dinosaur dig” area in the classroom (thanks for telling us about this fantastic teaching resource Mrs CardenDoorey). Using paintbrushes, the children could have a go at brushing away the sand to find the dinosaur skeleton. We wonder what it might be a herbivore, a carnivore or even an omnivore?

Miss Stephenson, (dressed as Mary Poppins for World Book Day), was asked to identify a special object. It was a good job her class had some super listening skills, so that they could help her with this task. Even Mary Poppins would have struggled with some of the names of dinosaurs, they can be very long and difficult to say, but not as long or as difficult as “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”!

All too soon, it was time to say goodbye, but our dinosaur expert did set the children some “pinkie palaeontologist challenges” such as could they draw a dinosaur and label its body parts, including the dinosaur’s skull?

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website: Everything Dinosaur.

29 02, 2016

Dressing Up for Dinosaur a Special Day

By Mike|2024-05-05T19:00:56+01:00February 29th, 2016|Categories: Educational Activities, Main Page, Teaching|0 Comments

Dressing Up for Dinosaur Day

To mark the start of a week of dinosaur and fossil themed learning, children in Year 2 at Southglade Primary School (Nottinghamshire, England), were given the opportunity to wear their favourite dinosaur T-shirt to school. Some children had brought in dinosaur costumes, others had their faces painted, so the Everything Dinosaur team member who spent the morning with the two classes felt very much at home.

Whilst talking through the learning objectives for the dinosaur workshops with members of the enthusiastic teaching team, our expert remarked on how spacious and well-organised the classrooms were. There was lots of evidence of various challenging fiction and non-fiction based writing projects on display, hopefully the suggestion about children in class 2HD having a pet Triceratops and what adventures it might get up to might inspire these budding young palaeontologists to write a short story about a dinosaur visiting their school.

Dinosaur Day

Teaching Assistant Mrs Walker had got into the spirit of the scheme of work by converting a hat into a dinosaur, how very creative. Can the children work out whether this dinosaur was a carnivore or a herbivore by examining the triangular and very sharp-looking teeth that Mrs Walker had cleverly added to her dinosaur themed headgear?

Mrs Walker – Complete with Dinosaur Hat

Mrs Walker with her dinosaur hat.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur/Southglade Primary School

Enthusiastic and Creative Teaching Teams

Under the dedicated tutelage of the enthusiastic and creative teaching team the children in classes 2E and 2HD are bound to have lots fun whilst learning a great deal about prehistoric animals over the next few days. Mrs Walker had even added some big green eyes to her dinosaur hat. Can the children come up with a name for this dinosaur, how about “hatty-saurus”!

Dinosaur Hat Up Close

dinosaur dressing up for a dinosaur day.

A big-eyed dinosaur with spikes.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur/Southglade Primary School

The green spikes located on the head (also known as the skull, as discovered by Year 2 today), are very impressive and we love the big eye. All to soon, it was time to leave, but we provided a dinosaur themed measuring exercise for the children to try, plus a novel extension activity that involves using some everyday materials to measure just how large a Tyrannosaurus rex could be.

Further Extension Resources to Support Learning Objectives

Once back at the Everything Dinosaur HQ there was just time to send out some emails with dinosaur drawing materials and fact sheets to help support the learning objectives.

To view the range of educational, dinosaur-themed toys and games available from Everything Dinosaur: Dinosaur Toys and Gifts.

28 02, 2016

John Locke Academy Explores Amazing Dinosaurs

By Mike|2024-05-05T19:01:21+01:00February 28th, 2016|Categories: Early Years Foundation Reception|Comments Off on John Locke Academy Explores Amazing Dinosaurs

Foundation Stage Children Discover Dinosaurs (Dinosaurs with John Locke Academy)

Friday was “find a dinosaur day” for the Foundation classes at John Locke Academy. The eager, young prehistoric animal fans in Nursery and Reception have just started their term topic and it’s all about dinosaurs! In the well organised and spacious classrooms there were lots of creative, dinosaur themed activities for the children to get to grips with. There was even a set of very colourful dinosaur eggs on display. It looks like the children had enjoyed making a nest for these huge eggs.

Dinosaurs with John Locke Academy

A Dinosaur Nest Has Been Discovered in the Classroom

Dinosaur eggs spotted at John Locke Academy. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: John Locke Academy/Everything Dinosaur

During the workshops we were able to encourage the children to think of some amazing describing words as we examined the teeth and jaws of carnivores. Impressive pre-knowledge was demonstrated by a number of the children. If our dinosaur expert ever gets stuck whilst studying a fossil, we now know who to get in touch with.

To contact Everything Dinosaur to learn more about our outreach work: Email Everything Dinosaur.

As part of Everything Dinosaur’s support for the varied and challenging scheme of work that had been developed by the enthusiastic teaching team, we were able to provide some colourful dinosaur themed word mats and a useful pronunciation guide, so that the grown-ups could keep up with all the budding palaeontologists.

All to soon, it was time for our dinosaur expert to say goodbye, as each of the classes lined up in very smart, straight lines there was just time for a special “T. rex” finger wave!

Everything Dinosaur stocks a large range of dinosaur themed toys, gifts and games which have all been tested and approved by our enthusiastic teaching team.

To view the range of prehistoric animal themed gifts available from Everything Dinosaur, including replicas of iconic animals from the fossil record: Dinosaur Gifts.

26 02, 2016

More Papo Dinosaur Word Mats for Schools

By Mike|2023-04-13T18:20:40+01:00February 26th, 2016|Categories: Educational Activities, Main Page, Press Releases, Teaching|0 Comments

Everything Dinosaur Creates More Papo Dinosaur Word Mats

The Papo dinosaur word mats featuring Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus rex have proved so popular with teachers that Everything Dinosaur has added a further two word mats to this free to download teaching resource. The Papo Spinosaurus and the huge Papo Brachiosaurus now feature in this colourful word mat series, enthusing primary school children about dinosaurs and helping to increase their confidence with language and develop their vocabulary.

Papo Dinosaur Word Mats

A New Addition to the Everything Dinosaur Papo Inspired Dinosaur Word Mats

Papo dinosaur world mat featuring Spinosaurus.

Papo Spinosaurus word mat.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

These word mats, once downloaded from Everything Dinosaur’s dedicated schools website, can be laminated and then stuck on the classroom tables. With six in the series there are plenty to go round.

To contact Everything Dinosaur about our free teaching resources: Email Everything Dinosaur.

Teaching Ideas

These dinosaur themed word mats can be used in lots of ways. For example, if one is given to each table then the children can be encouraged to learn about their particular dinosaur, a great way to enthuse the class about carrying out independent research and independent learning. Can the children find out facts about their very own dinosaur? Can they make a science poster all about what they have discovered? The word mats feature individual dinosaurs with various body parts labelled.

Teachers could blank out these labels and ask the children to provide the information themselves. Perhaps, they might even be able to add a few new ones of their own.

Pronunciation Guide and Timeline

A pronunciation guide is incorporated into each word mat. Great news for teachers and teaching assistants as this means no more struggling with difficult dinosaur names. The geological periods that make up the “Age of the Dinosaurs” are also provided along with a handy timeline. The silhouette of the dinosaur provides an indication as to when the dinosaur featured on the word mat lived.

The Papo Brachiosaurus Inspires Another Word Mat

A Papo Brachiosaurus dinosaur word mat.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur stated:

“These word mats have certainly proved popular. At the start of the second part of the Spring Term we have been handing out a set of word mats to all the classes that we have been working with. We have also received numerous requests to email these resources out to schools as well as making them freely available on our dinosaurs for schools website. The children seem to really enjoy using them and in a number of cases, within minutes of handing the mats over to the teaching team they have been laminated and stuck on the classroom tables ready to inspire the budding young palaeontologists.”

To view the Papo range of prehistoric animal models: Papo Dinosaur Models.

25 02, 2016

Class One Get into Dinosaurs

By Mike|2023-04-13T18:18:23+01:00February 25th, 2016|Categories: Key Stage 1/2|Comments Off on Class One Get into Dinosaurs

A Dinosaur Museum in the Classroom

The Key Stage 1 pupils at All Saints’ C of E Primary have started to learn all about dinosaurs and prehistoric animals this term. A dinosaur workshop delivered by Everything Dinosaur provided a provocation for the children and teachers alike. The children spent the morning handling lots of fossils and exploring the size and scale of dinosaurs.

A Dinosaur Museum

A Dinosaur Museum was Set up in the Classroom

A dinosaur museum at All Saints Primary. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Dinosaur Workshop

We set the Year 1 and Year 2 children a number of extension activities to help support the teacher’s scheme of work and although the children have only just started the term topic, there were numerous examples of dinosaur themed writing on display around the well organised classrooms.

Class One (ages 5-6) had set up a mini dinosaur museum in one corner of their classroom. This area will be used to showcase some of the children’s prehistoric animal themed arts and crafts. Some of the children presented our dinosaur expert with dinosaur drawings that they had done and in return we promised to email over fact sheets and drawing materials to help support the learning.

For further information about Everything Dinosaur’s work in schools: Contact Everything Dinosaur.

Commenting on the success of the morning of dinosaur themed activities, the Year 1 class teacher stated:

“The children were engaged with the session and we loved all the hands on stuff!”

We look forward to hearing how the budding young scientists tackled the extension activities we provided.

A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur commented that the company’s teaching team supervised the introduction of the dinosaur themed toys and games. They even tested and approved the Everything Dinosaur product range.

To view the range of prehistoric animal toys in stock, including replicas of famous animals from the fossil record: Dinosaur Games and Dinosaur Toys.

24 02, 2016

Class One and Class Two Study Dinosaurs

By Mike|2023-04-13T18:05:56+01:00February 24th, 2016|Categories: Educational Activities, Main Page, Teaching|0 Comments

Kicking off the Term Topic – Dinosaurs

Children in Class One and Class Two at All Saints’ Church of England Primary School (Stockport, Cheshire), have started the second half of the spring term with a real roar! These two classes are studying dinosaurs, fossils and life in the past with the help of their enthusiastic teachers Mrs Noble and Mrs Manning.

Although the term topic has only just started, the classrooms have lots of lovely dinosaur themed writing on display. In Mrs Manning’s Year 1 classroom, a dinosaur museum has been set up, perhaps some of the measuring activities we suggested after our workshop might feature amongst the children’s exhibits.

A Dinosaur Museum

The Dinosaur Museum in the Classroom

The dinosaur museum in Class One.

Picture credit: All Saints’ Church of England Primary School/Everything Dinosaur

Children Study Dinosaurs

We noticed one of Everything Dinosaur’s inflatable dinosaurs on display in the dinosaur museum – it is an inflatable Stegosaurus! As Mrs Manning confessed that her favourite dinosaur was another type of armoured dinosaur, an Ankylosaurus (pronounced an-KEE-loh-sore-us), the workshop format was altered slightly to allow the children to explore the size and scale of prehistoric animals using Ankylosaurus. We were even able to compare our brains to the brain of this plant-eating, Late Cretaceous giant.

To learn more about the huge range of dinosaur toys we stock: Everything Dinosaur.

Gaining Confidence with Adjectives

When asked to describe the size of the huge ammonite fossil, the children came out with lots of fantastic adjectives, the ammonite was described as “colossal”, “gigantic”, “massive” and we even had “enormous” – all super adjectives that impressed the Everything Dinosaur expert who was leading the workshop.

Over the course of the morning the classes learned lots of amazing dinosaur facts, with the teachers taking many photographs, all of which could be used in the recounting and recall activities scheduled for the afternoon.

Marine Reptiles As Well

With the dedicated support of the teaching assistants the children had been sorting dinosaurs into herbivores and carnivores. Reece had been colouring a drawing of a marine reptile, an Elasmosaurus (ee-las-mo-sore-us). He confidently told our dinosaur expert that Elasmosaurus was a plesiosaur.

A Drawing of a Marine Reptile (Elasmosaurus)

Reece and his Elasmosaur drawing.

Picture credit: All Saints’ Church of England Primary School/Reece from Class One

Fossil Themed Workshop

For one of the extension resources, we challenged the children to have a go at designing their very own dinosaur. Perhaps, some of the dinosaurs that the children create might have long necks like Elasmosaurus, or even flippers, that would be a very intriguing dinosaur indeed! Could the children make a dinosaur model using modelling clay or perhaps building bricks? If the children create their very own dinosaur, we would like to see lots of lovely adjectives used to describe their design, in addition, could they come up with a name to describe their prehistoric animal?

To learn more about Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning service: Everything Dinosaur Customer Service.

23 02, 2016

More Papo Dinosaur Word Mats

By Mike|2023-04-13T17:48:37+01:00February 23rd, 2016|Categories: Early Years Foundation Reception, General Teaching, Key Stage 1/2|Comments Off on More Papo Dinosaur Word Mats

More Papo Dinosaur Themed Word Mats for Schools

Such has been the response from teachers and teaching assistants after Everything Dinosaur introduced some Papo dinosaur themed word mats for use in schools, that this free to download range has been extended to include two more dinosaurs. Joining the Velociraptor, Triceratops, Stegosaurus and T. rex will be a Spinosaurus and a Brachiosaurus word mat, all helping to encourage Primary school children with their language development.

The Carnivore Spinosaurus Joins the Everything Dinosaur Word Mat Range

Papo Spinosaurus word mat.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Dinosaur Word Mats

These Papo dinosaur word mats are a free downloadable resource for use in schools. They can be laminated and placed on classroom tables to help encourage children to develop their vocabulary. In addition, these colourful and informative word mats can be used in classroom displays.

To request a Papo dinosaur word mat, whilst stocks last: Contact Everything Dinosaur.

Already, a number of schools have benefited from these free to download dinosaur themed teaching resources. A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur commented:

“We have teamed up with Papo to create these teaching resources. The children love the wonderful Papo models that are featured on the mats and we have used our teaching knowledge in combination with our dino expertise to develop word mats that encourage children to develop a love of language and to gain confidence with using and writing words.”

To view the range of Papo prehistoric animal figures available from Everything Dinosaur: Papo Prehistoric Animal Models.

The Papo Brachiosaurus Model Features on the Word Mats

A Papo Brachiosaurus dinosaur word mat.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

17 02, 2016

Dinosaur Notebook to Encourage Writing

By Mike|2023-04-13T07:12:13+01:00February 17th, 2016|Categories: Early Years Foundation Reception, General Teaching, Key Stage 1/2|Comments Off on Dinosaur Notebook to Encourage Writing

A5 Dinosaur Notebook

New in stock at Everything Dinosaur is this super, child-friendly, dinosaur themed notebook. Helping to encourage children with their hand-writing is one of the principle aims of Everything Dinosaur and this eighty page notebook, with built in ruler and ball point pen has got all our dinosaur experts excited.

Note Down Your Dinosaur Discoveries Here

A dinosaur notebook.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Dinosaur Notebook

Ideal for young dinosaur fans, this prehistoric animal themed notebook has illustrations of iconic fossils on the front. One of the budding young palaeontologists stated that there was “definitely a skull Tyrannosaurus rex” and who are we to argue. This is a super quality notebook made from recycled materials. It is great for encouraging writing and great for the environment too.

The front cover (that features the dinosaur skulls), is made from recycled cardboard and the inner pages (80 lined pages), are also made from recycled kraft paper. At a weight of 80 gsm, the paper is the same weight as most sheets used in schools, so they make an excellent writing medium. A ballpoint pen is included in the notebook set, it is held securely in place on the inside of the back cover, so there is no chance of this pen getting misplaced.

The pen in our set was black ink and the children had no problems at all writing with it. The plastic part of the pen is also made from 90% recycled materials, so we can tick the environmentally friendly box with this item, that’s for sure.

Helping to Encourage Writing

The children found the pen easy to grip and the lines on the pages were just about the right spacing to help the children with their note taking, making the writing legible. One of our younger testers was able to use the notepaper without any problems, carefully ensuring a finger space between each of the words that they had written. There were lots of lovely examples of writing produced, and it was pleasing to see some excellent punctuation too, not just capital letters and full stops but commas and even one example of quotation mark usage.

To view Everything Dinosaur’s range of dinosaur themed school stationery and other products: Prehistoric Animal Toys and Gifts.

Dinosaur Notebook to Encourage Writing

This new A5-sized dinosaur notebook has been added to our portfolio of dinosaur and prehistoric animal themed writing materials, notebooks and notepads, part of the extensive school themed range from Everything Dinosaur. Ideal for young dinosaur fans to help encourage them with their school work. Take a dinosaur to school or out on your own dinosaur hunting adventures with dinosaur themed stationery. Part of the extensive range of dinosaur and prehistoric animal themed school products including dinosaur stationery, dinosaur lunch bags, backpacks, pens and pencils, just about everything a young palaeontologist needs for school.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website: Everything Dinosaur.

13 02, 2016

Exclusive Dinosaur Word Mats Help Children

By Mike|2024-05-05T18:57:36+01:00February 13th, 2016|Categories: Early Years Foundation Reception, General Teaching, Key Stage 1/2|Comments Off on Exclusive Dinosaur Word Mats Help Children

Free Dinosaur Themed Word Mats to Download

Everything Dinosaur has teamed up with the prehistoric animal model makers Papo to create a set of dinosaur themed word mats to help inspire children to increase their vocabulary. These handy teaching aids are available as free downloads and have been designed by members of Everything Dinosaur’s teaching team.

Educational Dinosaur Themed Word Mats

A dinosaur word mat for the Jurassic herbivore Stegosaurus.

A word mat for the Jurassic herbivore Stegosaurus.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

In total, a set of five dinosaur themed word mats have been developed, all aimed at helping to give children more confidence with literacy and language skills as they study dinosaurs as a term topic. Take for example, children in Year 1 and Year 2. Many schools include a topic about dinosaurs in the teaching curriculum and enthusiasm for prehistoric animals can help boost reading and writing skills. In literacy, the children will be starting to form more complex sentences and to produce non-fiction based writing. Exposure to a topic all about dinosaurs will provide opportunities for the children to get to grips with more challenging words.

A Tyrannosaurus rex Inspired Dinosaur Word Mat

Helping to develop literacy as well as touching upon scientific working.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Dinosaur Word Mats

These very handy dinosaur themed word mats can be downloaded for free by contacting Everything Dinosaur team members: Email Everything Dinosaur.

The dinosaur themed word mats have been designed to illustrate different types of dinosaur. They also provide information on diet and the handy timeline indicates when the dinosaur lived. Everything Dinosaur team members have developed a variety of dinosaur word mats, including word mats depicting herbivores and carnivores as well as dinosaurs from the Cretaceous and the Jurassic.

To purchase Papo dinosaur models for use in schools: Papo Dinosaur Models.

12 02, 2016

Exclusive Dinosaur Themed Word Mats for Schools

By Mike|2024-05-05T18:54:14+01:00February 12th, 2016|Categories: Educational Activities, Main Page, Press Releases, Teaching|0 Comments

Everything Dinosaur Teams up with Papo to Help School Children

Thanks to all the dinosaur workshops delivered by Everything Dinosaur, the Cheshire based company has built up a strong reputation for their work in schools. Indeed, over this half-term, Everything Dinosaur has logged up another twenty or so five star reviews from teachers on the dinosaurs for schools website. One of the great advantages our staff have is that with their teaching knowledge combined with their dinosaur expertise, they can provide lots of advice to support the scheme of work that has been designed for each class.

Dinosaur Word Mats

Everything Dinosaur has teamed up with Papo to help enthuse and inspire the next generation of palaeontologists by using pictures of Papo model dinosaurs to create dinosaur themed word mats for use in schools.

A Dinosaur Themed Word Mat for Use in Schools

Dinosaur themed word mat.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

In the EYFS and Key Stage 1 classes, the teaching team will be helping to develop communication and language skills. The children will be encouraged to broaden their vocabulary, using different words and to gain a better understanding of their meaning and context. Dinosaurs as a term topic, will certainly expose the children to a whole range of new words. Given most children’s fascination with prehistoric animals, dinosaurs can help to inspire word usage as well as encouraging the children to read and write.

Dinosaur Themed Word Mats

For Reception classes, when it comes to literacy, the children will be starting to form their own sentences and to write, trying to include finger spaces, capital letters and full stops. The teaching team will continue to encourage the children to read and write using their phonic knowledge. At Key Stage 1, children will have moved away from free flowing play activities into much more structured learning. The school day will be more task-orientated with further progress in literacy and numeracy key components within the planned curriculum for the year.

Many schools adopt a term topic all about dinosaurs for Year 1 and Year 2. Within this topic, the children will be expected to develop their fiction and non-fiction writing, using increasingly sophisticated language.

A Tyrannosaurus rex Word Mat Incorporating Information on Diet and Geological Age

Helping to develop literacy as well as touching upon scientific working.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Helping to Develop Literacy

The teaching objectives for non-fiction writing involve developing a wider range of nouns and building upon a fascination with dinosaurs to encourage the use of adjectives. Here the word mat features a single dinosaur, information about the diet of the dinosaur is provided along with a handy geological timeline to indicate when the dinosaur lived.

To learn more about the team behind these free teaching resources: About Us.

To see Everything Dinosaur’s range of Papo prehistoric animal models: Papo Dinosaur Figures.

A Stegosaurus Word Mat for Use in Schools and Other Educational Establishments

A word mat for the Jurassic herbivore Stegosaurus.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The picture above shows the Stegosaurus word mat. It uses the Papo model Stegosaurus, as well as providing nouns, information about the diet of this armoured dinosaur and when it lived is given. In total, five word mats have been developed, these can be downloaded from Everything Dinosaur’s school website for free. These helpful word mats can be incorporated into wall displays, or laminated and stuck to the children’s work tables to help keep the focus on vocabulary extension.

Everything Dinosaur Comments

Commenting on the addition of a these Papo dinosaur inspired word mats to Everything Dinosaur’s range of teaching downloads, one of the teaching team stated:

“These colourful word mats will make a welcome addition to a teacher’s resources. Many schools have to rely on materials provided by non-specialist educational companies who simply lack knowledge when it comes to the Dinosauria. We have found numerous examples of word mats and other teaching aids with spelling mistakes and other inaccuracies. With these examples, the teachers can be assured that they have been designed by people who combine a knowledge about prehistoric life with expertise in teaching.”