A dinosaur theme can be very successful
because children are often intrigued and interested in learning about
dinosaurs, which makes it a great unit to integrate learning in many
areas.
Literacy:
Read
Dinosaur Stomp!
by Paul Stickland.
Follow up with the Rhyme Activity Dinosaur Stomp.
Activities
Talk about
the different kinds of Dinosaurs and their characteristics, such as: what
they ate, where they lived, what they looked like. Hold up plastic
examples or photos of realistic dinosaurs if you have them. Encourage the
kids to use descriptive words to describe what they look like.
Literacy:
Write their descriptive words on a big piece of tag board that is cut
into a dinosaur shape!
Read The Dinosaur Alphabet Book (Jerry Pallotta's Alphabet Books) and go
on an Alphabet Dinosaur Hunt around the room.
Before reading the story cut 26 dinosaur shapes
from cardstock or construction paper, and program them with the letters
from the alphabet and hang them around the classroom. After reading the
story ask the kids to join you on a dinosaur alphabet hunt. Find the
letters as a group or have the children work in groups or pairs to find
all the letters in the alphabet. For older children provide them
with a master sheet that has the entire alphabet printed on it, on a clip
board, and have them mark of the letters as they find them. Leave them up
and children can continue to find letters on their own throughout the
unit.
(Have kids
stomp around the room while you repeat the rhyme together, then ask them
what else dinosaurs might do? Jump, crawl, kick, eat, and have them make
up appropriate actions)
Literacy:
Write the action words the
children come up with on a piece of chart paper so they can see them in
print. Sound them out as you print them. Discuss how these are
"doing words" called verbs as the children actually
"do" them.
In small groups, play a counting game where children have to pick a
dinosaur card with numbers on them and then count out that many bones from
the excavation site. Use our dinosaur
pattern and program the dinosaur shape with the numbers one through
ten and cut out a bunch of the bone shapes to spread out in the excavation
site. (Make an excavation site using your sand table or simply fill a
small plastic storage container with sand and bury the bones in it.
Measure Dinosaur Bones: Get some facts from the internet on how long
certain dinosaur bones actually were, then help the kids see how big that
real is by measuring them out with yard sticks and tape measures. Do the
Dinosaur Dig Science activity and encourage them to measure the bones they
find with a ruler.
Dino Sponge Painted Scene Supplies: Dinosaur sponges, tree sponges,
large sheets of construction paper, paint. Directions: Let kids create a dinosaur
scene using the sponges and paint. **
you could also use rubber stamps or stencils instead of paint and sponges.
Literacy:
Have children tell you a story about their picture
(transcribe it), display their pictures and stories together on a class
bulletin board.
Craft Activity: Dinosaur Plaster Models Supplies: I purchased the molds at a craft
store, they are filled with plaster-of-paris and then they can be
painted. Directions: Follow
directions on box.
An alternative craft would be to cast Dino
tracks... make a Dinosaur footprint on sand and carefully pour plaster-of-paris
into the print, allow to dry, and remove from sand.
Dinosaur Hats:
Supplies: Paper plates, elastic
cord, green tempera paints, sponges for painting.
Directions: Cut the paper plates
in half and staple them together in a row so they look like the plates on
the back of a stegosaurus. Attach the row of plates to one full paper
plate to be used as the base of the hat. Attach a piece of elastic cord to
the full paper plate to make a band that will go around the child's chin
and hold their dinosaur hat on their head. Have the children sponge paint
them with different shades of green tempera paint using the sponges. Allow
them to dry.
Dinosaur
Habitat:Set up a dinosaur
dramatic play area with boxes painted to look like rocks and set out lots
of artificial plants. Have the children make dinosaur hats from the art
activity and allow them to wear them in the dramatic play area.
Play the game
Dinosaur Tag... one person is T-rex,
if he tags you you are extinct when all the dinosaurs are extinct then the
game starts again with a new T-rex.
Dinosaur Dig: Bury
plastic dinosaurs in the sand table, give kids small paintbrushes to use
to excavated the dinosaurs. Talk about when the dinosaurs lived and
other dinosaur facts, extinction is a big new word to learn.
Ask the children what you would find if they were really digging for
dinosaurs... bones, called fossils. Depending on the age
group you could talk about fossils too.
Literacy:Have
children keep "Dinosaur Dig Journals"- they can draw pictures
of the bones they find, write words for describing dinosaurs, and other
details such as length of bones they have measured, etc.
Display
children's Dino pictures and stories on a class bulletin board. *Use a dinosaur
footprint to identify each creator and attach it to the bottom corner
of each child's piece of art/story.
:
Read
and go
on an Alphabet Dinosaur Hunt around the room.
Before reading the story cut 26 
and have the children predict the
rhymes and opposites.
