Dinosaur activities

[Amy]

Hello,
I'm ending my earth science unit with dino's and I was wondering if anyone has any good ideas for activities that the students can do with dinosaurs.

 

[Bertie]

create your own dino

I like to give them all kinds of dinosaur body parts run off on colorful paper. They choose a body, head, legs/arms and "decorations" (horns, spikes, claws) to add, and glue this creature onto a jurassic-y looking background. Then we conference and name their dinosaur. I have sheets of the greek/roman words that are traditionally used for naming dinos and what they mean. I got it from the back of a dino book I bought at a museum, but I'm sure something similar could be googled. We combine these words in ways that describe their invented dino and I print the new name (plus translation) on the page. Then they go off and color their background.

 

[Christina21]

don't know if this is what you are looking fo

I am not sure if you want to do science related things or any type. I've read the Bernard Most book (I can't recall title) but it's about these kids that find a dinosaur whose name has part of their name in it. The kids then change the name slightly to fit their name. They also write why they are like that dinosaur. Very cute writing activity.
Also, one year I was ambitious and we made play dough as a class. They each got some and got to create a dinosaur. They then had to write facts about their dinosaur.

 

[donna]

Brownie dinosaur dig

I used to do dinosaurs many years ago in 2nd grade grade. One fun math activity was doing a paleontology dig on a brownie.

I would bake a batch of brownies with lots of walnuts. (This was before the nut allergies were big at school obviously) You can also do this with chocolate chip cookies if you have allergies in class.

Each child would get a brownie and would then need to make an estimate on how many dinosaur bones (walnuts) they will find in their brownie (conveniently the color of dirt) . After estimating they would use toothpicks to dig and pick at the earth and new, small paintbrushes to brush off the bones as they found them. They had to be careful not to break them as they tried to excavate them.

Then they would count them and record the numbers and we would do lots of math with them later. The kids have a lot of fun and it takes them a while to dig as they work carefully.

donna

 

[calumetteach]

Yummy eras!!

I did an activity that lasted the whole day!!! We made the layers of the different eras ( cezenoic, palentonic --- these are horribly misspelled I know) I think we discussed 3 or 4 eras. Then I had, chocolate pudding, cool whip and crushed oreos. (guess it was 3 eras)

I had gummy worms and Swedish fish which represented 2 diferent dinosaurs from different eras.

I had a big clear plastic container that we put the choc. pudding in and then put the gummy worms which we had to imagine were t-rex or whatever from that era. Then, after a PE or art or whatever, I pulled it out of the fridge and told the class they looked great for being millions of years old and we put the cool whip in with the Swedish fish and they were another kind of dinosaur from that period. We discussed which was the older layer etc, and would we ever find the gummy worm dinosaur in the cool whip era etc.....

Then after millions of years (or recess, lunch etc) they each got an oreo cookie which they smashed in a baggie and put it on the top which represented the era we are currently in with the rocks etc. on the top. Then........ the grand finale - they ate it!!

I had a paper that went along with it and they filled in the blanks and drew a picture. It was a big hit.

You might want to consider doing separate small glasses where they all make their own individual eras in a cup. They could just plop an era in as you go around with the pudding and cool whip. HAve fun whatever you choose.

 

[A.]

Dinosaurs

One of the selections in our reading book is "It's Probably Good Dinosaurs Are Extinct". I have my students write about whether they agree and give their own reasons to support their opinion.

We make dinosaur trading cards. They draw the dino on one side of a small index card and then write facts on the back (name, size, when and where lived, etc.).

We measure lengths of string to match the lengths of various dinosaurs and hang them in the hallway with labels. It makes a great visual to show just how long 100' is and to compare the sizes. Other classes love to look too!