*Dinosaurs Field Trip

Trailhead ---- Teacher's Resources ---- Start Field Trip
 

 

Below are activities to use with the tour, but you may have many more of your own. They are designed to cross all areas of the curriculum and make use of the rich resources of the Internet as well as good classroom practices.

Science

  • Enchanted Learning http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/allabout/alphadinos.shtml
  • Research some theories about why the dinosaurs became extinct and write about which you think are possible and which you think are totally impossible.
  • Use information from The University of Bristol web page (http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/communication/dinobiol.html) to create posters to classify dinosaurs into groups: herbivores (plant eaters), carnivores (meat eaters), flyers, and water living dinosaurs.
  • Create a fossil dictionary including facts and illustrations about fossils and how they are used to learn about dinosaurs of the past. Staple together a blank booklet of approximately 10 pages to create the dictionary.

Math

  • Sort and count plastic dinosaurs. Pose math problems suitable to the capabilities of your students, e.g. "If I had 3 dinosaurs and I take 2 dinosaurs away, how many dinosaurs left?’ "If 2 dinos each had 4 eggs, how many dino eggs altogether?"
  • Use facts about groups of dinosaurs to write and solve math word problems.
  • Create a concentration game by finding or drawing two of each picture and pasting them onto cardboard squares. How to play : Shuffle the cards, turn them all upside down and each player takes turns to find pairs.

Language and Literacy

  • Find meanings for the following words: extinct, jurassic, fossil, carnivores, herbivores, reptile. Use the Dino Dictionary to help you write and illustrate a story with the title "What Would You Do If You Had A Pet Dinosaur." Encourage the children to write and illustrate a story about where they would keep it, where it would sleep and what they would feed it. Consider what would happen while they are at school or what would happen if they brought it to school for show and tell.
  • Discuss as a group what the problems would be with having a dinosaur as a pet.
  • Write a DINOSAUR acrostic poem. An acrostic poem is a poem where the first letter of each line, when read down, makes the word DINOSAUR. These Info Sheets will help you with words to complete your poem. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/allabout/alphadinos.shtml
  • Write a story about why you think the dinosaurs became extinct.

 

Check out these books!

The Days of The Dinosaurs by Jan Anderson

Did Comets Kill The Dinosaurs? By Isaac Asimov

Collins Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Creatures. By Barry Cox

Thingnapped by Robyn Klein

Amanda’s Dinosaur by Wendy Orr

 

Music

Song "The Prehistoric Animal Brigade"

"LISTEN TO THE CHORUS OF THE BRONTOSAURUS, AND THE STEGOSAURUS DOWN BY THE LAKE.

HERE'S A WOOLY MAMMOTH, TUSKS ALL CURLY, JOINS THE HURLY-BURLY, OH DEAR ME.

WHAT A NOISE, IT'S THE BOYS, FROM THE PREHISTORIC ANIMAL BRIGADE."

Sing this as a chanting kind of song while the children thump their knees to sound like dinosaurs stomping and to the beat of the words. It can also be sung in a round with groups of children starting after each line.

 

Art

  • Model paper mache dinosaurs using paper mache balloons to create a jurassic-theme wall mural with leaf and bark collage trees. Add artwork and information to it as you learn.
  • Make model paper mache dinosaurs using balloons, wire and paper mache. Create the body parts and wire to join them together once the mache is dry and balloons have been removed. Use toilet rolls for legs, attaching them with masking tape and cut out cardboard shapes for heads and tails.
  • Visit some of the exhibitions at the web sites below. Using pictures you have seen and information you discover about dinosaur anatomy and behaviour, choose parts from a few different dinosaurs and paint, draw or collage a mixed up dinosaur, e.g. A brontosaurus head with a pleseosaur body and pteradactyl wings with tyranosaurus rex teeth.
  • Using a tray of sand about 4 centimeters deep, allow the children to create what they would consider a dinosaur foot print to look like. Line the foot print carefully with plastic food wrap and pour plaster into it. Allow to dry and remove the plaster cast from the sand. Peel off the plastic wrap and you have created a cast of a dinosaur footprint. The footprint can then be painted if you choose.

 

Exhibitions (Pictures and Artwork)

DinoArt http://www.dinoart.com/pages/studio.html

Dinosaur Cartoons http://www.dinosaurcartoons.com/

 

Fun

Jokes and fun activities http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/fun/

Word scramble http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/activities/unscramble/uns1.shtml

 

 

VFT Home | About | Field Trip List | Lounge | Standards

the software | the field trips | the book | the training

Home | About Tramline | Support | Store | Contact

Send mail to with questions or comments about this Web site.
Copyright © 1996-2007 Tramline. All rights reserved. Legal Agreement.