Student Book

“BIG!”

(borrowed from Kim’s class books)

The students each get two simple dinosaur blacklines, possibly “long neck” brachiosaurus. One blackline must be larger for the “effect”. Students color both dinosaurs. The larger dino will be cut up by the student in accordance with the text written on each page. The appropriate body part will be glued on the correct page.

The Pages:

1. Big feet. (student glues dino feet)

2. Big tail. (student glues tail)

3. Big neck. (student glues neck)

4. Big head. (student glues head)

5. Big body. (student glues body)

6. Big appetite. (child draws or glues a picture of a tree)

7. Little brain. (student glues a dried pea)

8. Big word! (student glues smaller dino picture and  stamps or cuts the letters out in square blocks to spell and glue d-i-n-o-s-a-u-r)

The Cover:

The cover could be any color. Title: “Big Parts!”, “Big Things”, or just plain “Big!”) The title could be run off in sentence strips which the student could glue on. They could decorate with dinosaur stamps or stickers or by making dinosaur tracks. The “marker” is a popsicle stick with a dinosaur sticker glued to one end.

(Kim’s books usually have a pocket glued to the back of the cover to hold the “marker”, which the children use to point as they reread the book.)

 Patterned Poem

If I Were a Dinosaur

(borrowed from Mrs. Burns’ site)

Read A Dinosaur Named After Me by Bernard Most.  After reading the story, look at pictures of different types of dinosaurs and compare physical characteristics.  (Some dinosaurs had two legs, some had four.  Some had long necks, some had spikes, etc.etc.)  Ask the children to create their own dinosaur using Crayola Model Magic.  When the molds dry allow them to paint their dinosaurs using tempera paint.  Ask the children to name their dinosaurs after themselves, such as Maryosaurus Rex or Edguanodon.  You can even write poems for these dinosaurs, using the pattern below:

            If I were a dinosaur,

            A __________________  I would be.  

            I would eat __________________

            And __________________ I would see.

            But since I'm not a dinosaur,

            I am happy to be me!

 Other Student Book Ideas

If I Were A Dinosaur….

Each page can have a starter that students complete and illustrate.

My Dinosaurs Days Booklet

The Mailbox, Pre/K, Jan/Feb 1989

What Can Dinosaurs Do?

The Education Center (TEC251)

Bone Bank

Fold tagboard into a box shape. Two sides have a tropical picture (palm trees, ferns). One side has a dinosaur. The fourth side of the box is labeled, “__________’s Bone Bank”. Write words, letters or numbers that need reinforcement on small bone shapes. Students practice reading their bones and putting them into the bone bank.

Journal Topic

Play Raffi’s song, “If I Had a Dinosaur”. Then have students complete and illustrate this sentence starter: If I had a dinosaur, I would _____________.

Other Literacy Resources

Blacklines relating to comprehension of the book, “Patrick’s Dinosaurs.” Worksheet Magazine, Kindergarten, April/May/June 1991

One-to-one Correspondence/

Counting

Dino Hop Game

This activity is for two players. Make a line of 17 one inch squares (it doesn’t really matter how many, but it must be an odd number.) Place a toy dinosaur in the center square (square nine if you made 17 squares in a line). The first player rolls one die and hops the dinosaur toward his end of the line the number on the die. The second player rolls the die and turns the dinosaur in the other direction and hops that many spaces. Play continues back and forth between the players until one player finally reaches his end of the line of squares with the dinosaur.

Digging for Dinos

Bury small dinosaurs in a tub of sand. Give each student a container. They dig in the sand, find the dinosaurs and count how many they found.

Sorting/Graphing

Triceratops Tromp

(January, Kindergarten TEC)

Make a blackline of a triceratops in three sizes. Copy these triceratops pictures on three different colors of paper. Cut them out, punch a hole and make them into necklaces. Put three hula hoops on the floor in the classroom. Give the necklaces to nine students Explain that the students will perform a dance called the Tricertops Tromp. Play some lively music and call out either “Size” or “Color”. Students have to sort themselves into the hula hoop rings on the floor. Let the other students have a turn also.

Sort dinosaur manipulatives or cutouts by color or type of dinosaur.

Graph the favorite dinosaur of the class.

Give students a handful of dinosaur manipulatives or cutouts. Have them sort them and then graph them.

Patterning

Use dinosaur stamps, macaroni or manipulatives to make patterns.

Subtraction Readiness

Give a small group of students 10 small dinosaurs and have them stand them in a straight line. Each student takes turns rolling a die and removing that many dinosaurs from his line. To win, the student must roll the exact number of dinosaurs he has left.

Measurement

Use an extended tape measure to demonstrate to students how large dinosaurs were. Go to the playground and mark off these lengths. Some examples are: Apatosaurus (70 feet),Tyrannosaurus Rex ( 50 feet), Stegosaurus (25 feet), Ankylosaurus (15 feet) and Compsognathus (2 feet).

Choose one dinosaur and cut a length of yarn the same size as the length of that dinosaur. Use the length of yarn to see how many dinosaurs long various areas are—how many dinosaurs long is the playground, the school, the hallway, the gym, etc.

Division Readiness

This idea came from the book, Math Through the Alphabet, by Sue Kerr. Get 12 small dinosaurs or pictures of dinosaurs. Put one dinosaur in each section of an egg carton. Students must divide the dinosaurs equally into groups. Tell students to imagine the dinosaurs going out to explore each day. On the first day the dinosaurs stayed together. On the second day, they split into two groups. On one of the days there can’t be the same number of dinosaurs in each group so they decided to stay home. They can put an X on that day.

*The first worksheet has one large box on it and is labeled: 1 Group of ____ Dinosaurs.

*The second sheet has two large boxes on it and is labeled: 2 Groups of ____ Dinosaurs.

*The third sheet has three boxes and is labeled: 3 Groups of ____ Dinosaurs.

*The fourth sheet has four boxes and is labeled: 4 Groups of ____ Dinosaurs.

*The fifth sheet has five boxes and is labeled: 5 Groups of ____ Dinosaurs.

*The sixth sheet has six boxes and is labeled: 6 Groups of ____ Dinosaurs.

Fossils

Make fossils by spreading clay (about a one inch thickness) in a pie pan. Students then press small objects (small dinos, buttons, keys, rocks, shells) into the clay to make indentions. Pour about one inch of plaster of paris over this clay and let it fill the indented spots and cover the rest of the clay. When the plaster dries, remove it from the pie tin and clay. Have students use the objects that formed the fossils and try to fit them into the impressions.

More Fossils

(recipe for 6-8 fossils)

Mix together 2 cups of flour, 1 cup each of water and salt, and 6 tablespoons of dry brown tempera paint to make mud. Place the mud in a small pie tin and smooth out. Press a small object in to the mud to create an impression. Set aside to dry for several days. After they’re dry, put them and the objects in a center and try to match the object to the fossil.

Dinosaur Dig Center

Materials:

Large tub filled with sand

Dried, clean chicken wing bones

Egg shells

Small rocks and seashells

Magnifying glasses

Tweezers

Small paint brushes

Pencils

Writing paper

Procedure:

Bury the items in the sand.

After reading books related to dinosaurs, explain to the class that they will become paleontologists. Demonstrate how to gently move the sand with the paint brushes to uncover their archeological finds. The “finds” are then removed with the tweezers and dusted. Next, the students examine their finds with the magnifying glass.

The finds can be classified, sorted, measured, or graphed.

To extend the project to a writing center, make a blackline that says, “I found….”. The students can write a list of what they found, either using invented spelling or using picture cards with the words provided by the teacher. Or the students could draw a picture of what they found. This could be made into a class book, “Our Fossil Finds.”

The students can rebury their finds for the next group of students if you are rotating centers.

Dinosaur Dig

Dinosaurs Unit by The K Crew:
Students explore tubs of sand to find “dinosaur bones".

Dinosaur Characteristics

Make a chart of the differences between meat-eating (carnivorous) dinosaurs and plant-eating (herbivorous) dinosaurs. Include the number of feet they walk on, the shape of the feet (claws), teeth, armor (bony plates, horns) or no armor. Classify dinosaur models or pictures into these two categories.

Dinosaur Skeletons

It’s fairly easy to find dinosaur skeleton pictures or blacklines. Copy these on transparencies. Then trace the dinosaur outlines (without the bones) and cut them out. Students put the transparency bones over the appropriate dinosaur to show their skeletal system.

Dinosaur “Trading Cards”

Copycat Magazine (Nov/Dec 93) had some cards that could be folded for trading cards (the same size as baseball cards). One side had a picture of a dinosaur and the back listed facts about the dinosaur. There is a nifty carrying case with the dinosaur mouth cut out to store the cards.

Dinosaur Report

(from January Monthly Reproducibles, Kindergarten)

Send home a page of information about a particular dinosaur (could be copied from an encyclopedia) to enable parents to help their child complete a  "Dinosaur Report” about the dinosaur. They should complete these sentences:

This dinosaur’s name is _____________.

It measured ________________.

It was a        plant eater          meat eater         (Circle one.)

It walked on     2 legs           4 legs         

(Circle one.)

Its special features include ____________________________________.

Here is a picture of this dinosaur:

Another Dinosaur Dig

Mix vermiculite or sand into plaster of paris and fill paper cups with a plastic dinosaur hidden inside. Bury the 'rocks' in the sand table and provide each child with a large nail and toothbrush to use for excavating their find.

Paleontologists

Fill small eggs with dino treats such as stickers or dino gummies (or you can purchase dinosaur eggs from Oriental Trading). Bury these eggs in sand and have students find them.

Paleontologists

Dinosaurs Unit by The K Crew: Students use a toothpick to excavate chocolate chips from a cookie.

Pasta Fossils

(from Crafts for Kids Who Are Wild About Dinosaurs by Kathy Ross)

Materials:

Potting soil

White glue

Miscellaneous macaroni

Zip-lock bag

Paper or plastic plate

Foam brush

Instructions:

Put macaroni into a zip-lock bag and close. Break up macaroni by stepping on the bag. With hands, mix several tablespoons of glue int 1 ½ cups of potting soil. Continue adding glue until dirt holds together. Mold into a bowl.

Press out soil ball on plate to 1/2 inch thick. Arrange macaroni pieces on soil to look like a dinosaur skeleton. Press pieces in. Brush a coat of white glue over entire surface. Let dry overnight. Remove from plate.

Dinosaur Eggs

Make paper mache dinosaur eggs (put small plastic dinos in the eggs and let the kids hatch them!)

Sculptured Dinosaurs

 Make playdough or Model Magic dinosaurs or fossil prints.

Museum Dinosaur

Use styrofoam packing peanuts to make a dinosaur. Thread some thin wire (we have used wire from a section of telephone cable and florist wire) through the bottom of a paper plate so you have four strands for legs, string packing pieces on the legs, twist the wires together to make a body, tail and neck for stringing. This takes a creative adult helper but the resulting product is a pretty neat dinosaur that can be displayed in a showcase 'museum'.

Dinosaur Day

Have centers set up for the students to rotate among to complete various activities:

Bone Bank (see literacy above)

Dino Bingo Game-bingo game card with a dinosaur in the free space

Dinosaur Trading Cards (see science above)

Dino Hop game (see math above)

Triceratops Treats (see recipes)

Dino Pokey

You put your claws in/claws out/scratch 'em all about.

You put your feet in/feet out/stomp them all about.

You put your teeth in/teeth out/chomp them all about.

You put your tail in/tail out/wag it all about.

Dino Treasure Hunt

Make dinosaur footprints and place them around the room to follow the trail to a treasure.

Be a Stegosaurus

Use paper grocery bags and make one child the head, one the tail and the rest the stegosaurus spines.

Pin the Horn on the Dinosaur

Enlarge a Triceratops pattern to make a Pin the Horn on the Dinosaur game.

Dinosaur Names

Make headbands by writing "dino names" and stamping with dino stamps.