Reception Class Sends in Thank You Note To Everything Dinosaur after Dinosaur Workshop

Everything Dinosaur team members are busy visiting schools all over the UK at the moment.  We need to become as fast as a speedy Struthiomimus in order to keep up with all our other duties at this time of year.  However, we do try and respond to every email, letter, drawing sent in and such like, especially from young dinosaur fans and budding palaeontologists.

Everything Dinosaur

After a school visit to work with some children in reception classes (aged 4-5) years, we received a thank you letter from class RJ.

Class RJ Say Thanks for the Dinosaur Workshop

Class RJ’s letter.

Picture credit: Class RJ

Thank You Note

Miss Jones, (the teacher) emailed to say how much the children enjoyed learning about dinosaurs.  She went onto add that the children came up with the letter and helped to write the words.  Always a pleasure to hear from school children and we encourage such imaginative writing in reception classes, they can really help young children with their sentence construction and appreciation of grammar.  Naturally, we took time out of busy schedule to compose a reply and to email it over to the school.

Saying Thank You for the Thank You

Thank you for your kind letter.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The children under the expert guidance of their teachers and the support staff had prepared lots of questions in time for our visit to the school.  A number of classes had thought about the sort of questions they would like answered and then these were written down with the help of the teacher, we did our best to answer them all.

School Children Prepare Lots of Questions

Lots of questions prepared by school children.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

So many questions, the children were very enthusiastic and we were really impressed with their knowledge about prehistoric animals.  We were so pleased that these budding scientists enjoyed looking at the dinosaur bones.

When conducting dinosaur workshops for reception, it is important to consider extension activities that can take place once the visit is over to help reinforce learning and to check understanding.  In this way, Everything Dinosaur team members can further support the work of the teachers in the school.

To view the range of informative, education dinosaur toys and games in stock: Dinosaur Gifts, Models and Toys.

Cameron’s Camarasaurus (Dinosaur Workshops in School)

Whilst working with a class of school children during one of Everything Dinosaur’s frequent school visits to undertake dinosaur themed workshops we explored how scientists go about naming organisms.  Inevitably, how dinosaurs got their names became the focus of this part of the lesson topic.

The children were able to demonstrate what they had learned during the term by correctly identifying various prehistoric animals and stating what the name of the animal actually means.  For example, Triceratops means “three horned face” and anyone who has seen a picture of this ceratopsian’s skull can see for themselves the three-horns that adorn it.  The two large, brow horns over the eyes and the smaller nose horn.

Triceratops means “Three Horned Face”

Three-horned face.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The children learned that it is often the job of the person who discovers the dinosaur’s fossil bones to come up with a name for that animal.  Cameron asked, if he had to name a dinosaur could he call it Cameronsaurus?  Our team member explained that there was already a dinosaur that had a very similar name – Camarasaurus (C. supremus).

Camarasaurus

Camarasaurus was a long-necked, herbivore, a member of the Sauropoda that lived in the western United States during the Late Jurassic (155-145 million years ago).  It was a large animal, perhaps measuring in excess of twenty metres when fully grown.

An Illustration of the Sauropod Camarasaurus

Camarasaurus dinosaur model.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur/Safari Ltd

Dinosaur Names

Everything Dinosaur then challenged the class to design their own dinosaur and to come up with a name that describes the prehistoric animal, one that could be used to name their very own dinosaur.

To view models of sauropods, ceratopsids and other herbivorous dinosaurs, take a look at the extensive range of Safari Ltd models in stock at Everything Dinosaur: Wild Safari Prehistoric World Models and Figures.

Pupils Learn All About Dinosaurs at Barton Moss Community Primary

Year 3 pupils at Barton Moss Community Primary have been turning this month into “Dinovember” with a whole range of dinosaur and fossil themed activities as the children learn all about prehistoric animals.   Under the tutelage of Mr Sagar and Miss Wardle both classes of Year 3 pupils have been studying dinosaurs and the classrooms have on display some lovely examples of the children’s drawings and creative writing.  A team member from Everything Dinosaur was invited along to show the children some fossils and to illustrate the size and scale of dinosaurs.  The pupils were quick to demonstrate their knowledge and to point out which dinosaurs were carnivores and which were herbivores.

“Dinovember”

Helped by the enthusiastic Teaching Assistants, Miss Marsh and Miss Thomas, each class have been looking after their very own dinosaur egg and the children are waiting to see what will happen next.

One of the Dinosaur Eggs in the Classroom is Getting Ready to Hatch

Can you see the crack in the egg?

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Dinosaur Eggshell

Some of the pupils got to examine pieces of real dinosaur egg shell and they learned the reasons why dinosaur eggs were not as big as you might imagine.  Lots of questions were asked and our dinosaur expert was able to answer most of them, taking time out to explain using some of the fossils and to check the children’s understanding, we really enjoyed looking at some of the children’s dinosaur drawings including Kamila and her “Kamila-oh-saurus”.

The Second Dinosaur Egg in Mr Sagar’s Class

Could be a T. rex about to hatch?

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Tyler and Tylosaurus

Young Tyler was told all about a huge marine reptile that has a similar name to his (Tylosaurus).  Our dinosaur expert explained that Tylosaurus ate ammonites and other sea creatures and there were some ammonite fossils on hand so that the children learn a little bit more about these sea creatures, which Cain correctly guessed were related to today’s squid.  Caprice even produced a wonderful mime of an ammonite, swimming, bobbing up and down in the water and shooting out its tentacles to catch a fish.

Young Denver, in Mr Sagar’s class learned that he too, shares a name with a prehistoric animal, this time it’s a dinosaur – Denversaurus.  Scale drawings of both the Tylosaurus and the Denversaurus have been sent over to the school so that the children can see how big these extinct animals actually were.  Special thanks to Ethan and his chums for explaining what extinct meant and to Cole for remembering what omnivores ate.

Some of the Examples of the Children’s Artwork 

Creative, inventive dinosaurs.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Dinosaur Drawings

Oliver had produced a most impressive drawing of a dinosaur, he had decided to call his dinosaur Fred.  It’s a dinosaur with spikes on his back and a very loud roar.

Examples of the Children’s Work Posted up on the Classes Working Wall

A spiky dinosaur crated by Oliver.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

With a new dinosaur being named and described on average every two to three weeks, there are a lot of dinosaur discoveries going on around the world at the moment, Michael and Anthony, both from Poland, got to hold a piece of a backbone from a marine reptile that had been recently excavated in the country whilst Jack learned that prehistoric animal bones can be found in this country too.  Our thanks to Courtney-May and Amy for taking notes.  Charlie and his chums correctly identified how closely related to dinosaur’s birds are, whilst Lucy helped with the experiments and Aidan got to help guess the fossil.

For further information about Everything Dinosaur’s huge range of dinosaur themed learning materials, gifts and toys: Dinosaur Themed Gifts and Toys.

Some of the questions posed by the children were very thought provoking and demonstrated a clear understanding of the term topic and there were a number of budding palaeontologists in each class. All in all, a rewarding term topic for both teachers and pupils and as a final challenge the children were asked to compose a thank you letter to Everything Dinosaur, a test of their recall plus an ability to show off their creative writing skills.

Primary School Children Track Down Dinosaurs at Painsley Catholic College

Year four and five students attending local primary schools in Staffordshire had the opportunity to visit the well-appointed science labs at Painsley Catholic College and to take part in some dinosaur themed studies.  The pupils all from Federation Primary schools which are feeder schools for the College, were invited to join an expert from Everything Dinosaur as part of the College’s outreach programme as teaching staff help to prepare children for the challenges and opportunities of secondary education.

Dinosaur Workshop

The morning’s activities focused around teaching the fundamentals of scientific methodology with the pupils given the opportunity to examine fossils, look at evidence and to come up with their own ideas and theories.  As a warm up exercise, the school children were challenged to come up with an explanation as to why there are so few fossils of Triceratops limb bones available for scientists to study.

Toby from St Mary’s (Leek) suggested that the size of the bones could affect the way that some of them might get turned into fossils, whilst Georgina, who was attending from St. Filumena’s (Caverswall, Stoke), thought that the limbs of Triceratops might have been eaten (you might be onto something, Georgina).

Pupils Puzzle over Fossil Teeth

Getting their Teeth into Science.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Triceratops horridus

The children learned that the dinosaur that they had just been studying was called Triceratops horridus, the name means “horrible three horned face” and young Max (St Giles Catholic Primary), demonstrated his considerable knowledge about dinosaurs by explaining the reasons for Triceratop’s name.

Next up came a quick comparison of brain sizes with a cast of part of the skull of an ankylosaurid (armoured dinosaur) used to explain a little about the size of dinosaurs and their brains.  Early arrivals, John, Elliot and Holly had looked at the fossilised teeth of a giant marine reptile and they were amazed to learn that if they all laid down head to toe, the length of all three of them would be roughly equivalent to the size of one of this animal’s enormous flippers.

Using such examples can help young scientists understand the sheer scale of some of these prehistoric animals, helping to bring to life what they may have read about dinosaurs or learned at school.

Palaeontology

By way of a quick exploration of ammonite specimens, the school children were provided with a brief guide as to how most fossils are formed and what fossils can tell us about extinct creatures.  Rebecca and Ben were able to work out why palaeontologists think that female ammonites were generally bigger than the males.  A great example of using knowledge to explore a new concept, to relate what they already knew to a fresh challenge.

The Size and Scale of the Dinosauria

The next generation of scientists!

Picture credit: Painsley Catholic College

Studying Dinosaur Tracks

Next came the opportunity to study a set of dinosaur tracks that date from the Early Jurassic.  Scientists have uncovered a number of fossilised footprints of animals that congregated around a lake that was drying up. The fossils date from around 190 million years ago and the teacher visiting the school from Everything Dinosaur challenged the pupils to look at the evidence and to come up with a theory as to what a section of tracks might show.

Each of the budding young palaeontologists was given a worksheet, could they work out what the strange set of 190-million-year-old tracks might be revealing?  This was a real example of “Walking with Dinosaurs”.

Tasha and Leia (St Josephs Primary School, Uttoxeter) worked out the direction of travel by identifying the marks left by the toes.  Isabel calculated that the animal that made the tracks in the mud by the lake, must have had at least three toes.  Ellie (St Mary’s) came up with a theory the proposed either a three-toed or four-toed animal had walked that way.

The Importance of Scale Bars

When asked to explain why scientists put a scale bar on their drawings, Niall, Edward  and Chris (St. Thomas’ Catholic Primary School), correctly pointed out that scale bars helped scientists to measure the actual size of the prints.

Students Learn About Scale and Scale Bars in Dinosaur Study

The importance of scale bars.

The black lines next to the photograph help scientists to appreciate the actual size of the prehistoric tracks.

To learn more about Everything Dinosaur’s outreach work in the community: Email Everything Dinosaur.

Examining the Evidence Formulating Theories

Having examined the evidence and worked through the information the children were then challenged to come up with a theory to explain the unusual prints preserved in the Lower Jurassic sediments.  Lots of different ideas were put forward, Joshua and Millie thought that the animal, probably a dinosaur was scratching around in the mud, perhaps it had got stuck and it was trying to free itself.

Peter from St Marys suggested that the tracks might have been made by a wounded dinosaur and perhaps it was limping and staggering – interesting theory Peter.  Harriet and her chums from St Giles Catholic Primary School proposed that this dinosaur must have been quite lazy and the tracks represent the places in the mud where it dragged its feet – another intriguing interpretation.  Having looked long and hard at the evidence, Ben and Roman came up with the theory that these were the tracks of a dinosaur that had gone for a swim.

Fascinating Theories

All in all, some fascinating theories put forward and a great introduction to some of the methods involved in scientific enquiry.  There was even time for Mrs Johnson to organise a set of school photographs of the children holding some of the fossils of prehistoric fish that Everything Dinosaur had brought in.  Not too bad for a morning’s work, exploring Late Cretaceous herbivorous dinosaurs, marine reptiles, prehistoric invertebrates and examining strange tracks made in the mud as a Jurassic lake dried up, with the chance to get up close to the teeth of primeval sharks.

A typical day working with the science teaching team at Painsley Catholic College helping to enthuse and inspire the next generation of scientists with a dinosaur workshop.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s child-friendly and award-winning website: Everything Dinosaur.

Dinosaur Toys and Games

Team members at Everything Dinosaur are busy working with lots of schools this term, helping pupils to learn about dinosaurs and fossils.  Over the last few days, staff have been travelling all over the country delivering dinosaur themed workshops in support of national curriculum teaching aims and objectives.

The pace has been quite hectic but all the nice comments from the teachers, LTAs, and children make the hard work really worthwhile.  For example, after working with children from Nessfield Primary, the students sent thank you letters and all of them were greatly appreciated.  This is also a fantastic way to get the children to develop their creative writing skills, use of punctuation and of course, to test their recall.

Everything Dinosaur

Teacher Appreciates the Work of Everything Dinosaur

Thanks from Teacher

Picture Credit: Nessfield Primary

The teacher included this personal note in with the children’s letters, it was addressed to Mike one of our teachers/dinosaur experts who led the dinosaur workshop.  Seems like the visit was a big success with the children still referring to contribution to the topic that the visit from Everything Dinosaur made.

Glad to be of service.

To view the extensive selection of educational dinosaur themed toys and gifts available from Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website: Educational Dinosaur Themed Toys and Gifts.