Dinosaur Lesson

For my dinosaur lesson, I followed the same opening format that Cristi used on previous posts: Question of the Day, Rules Review, Calendar, Weather & Alphabet.

For the Alphabet section, I was in charge of teaching the kids the letter L for the week. After singing the alphabet song and introducing the letter L and what sound it makes, we went on a dinosaur dig. I made a concoction in a large pan of an assortment of dry beans, rice, chucks of Styrofoam and some dry cereal. I gave each child a little paint brush and a baby spoon to search for letter L items. I had lizards, Lego's, a mini lamb and pictures of several other things that start with the letter L hidden in the "dirt". They each took turns being a paleontologist and digging up an item, as well as showing all the other children.

We also read a few neat dinosaur books during the beginning activities to break things up. First, Dinosaur Cafe by Brian Moses and also a couple from the How Do Dinosaurs (Eat, Go To Sleep, Play With Their Friends) series. There are so many great dinosaur books, take your pick!

Snack:

I kept it simple and gave each child a Dinosaur fruit snack and juice, while reading another book, Curious George and the Dinosaur, as they ate.

Lesson:

We talked about a few simple dinosaur facts:

*A paleontologist is a scientist who studies fossils to learn about prehistoric plants and animals

*A fossil is a remain of a dinosaur that a paleontologist digs up (teeth, bones).

*Dinosaurs are extint-they no longer live on the earth. They lived here millions of years ago.

*Some dinosaurs were plant eaters, while others were meat eaters (show pictures of both).

Craft:

I printed a picture of a dinosaur and had the kids glue elbow macaroni (bones) to the dinosaur. The first-school website had some great coloring pages of any dinosaur from A-Z to choose from.

Extra-time:

For our last 15 minutes, I had the kids use play-dough and dinosaur cookie cutters to continue to learn "hand-on" about dinosaurs.

Additional Resources:

I had the children take home a alphabet handwriting worksheet for the letter L. The first-school website had a great one that used the Leptosaurus or any other letter you are focusing on.

I also printed off dinosaur alphabet flash cards and cut them up from the first-school website for the kids to take home and practice the alphabet with.