United StatesDinosaur Unit
Grade Levels: 4 - 6
Objectives
- Students will demonstrate general and specific knowledge of dinosaurs.
- Students will demonstrate the ability to read for specific information in both books and Internet web pages.
- Students will be able to watch and listen to a video to extract specific information.
- Students will work with a partner in a mutually beneficial problem-solving situation.
- Students will be able to access a web site to obtain specific information.
- Students will print an activity page from a web page.
- Students will prepare and present oral reports.
- Students will follow detailed instructions to complete a worksheet.
Materials
- Dinosaur Facts
- Books about dinosaurs
- A video on dinosaurs, TV, and VCR
- Teacher-made worksheets
- Student access to the Internet
- Drawing paper and crayons
- Folders for each student
- Dinosaur models, if available
Procedures
- Introduce the unit by giving the students general facts about dinosaurs. Include a discussion about color, size, herbivorous vs. carnivorous, quadripedal vs. bipedal, etc. Let the children have hands-on experience with dinosaur models if available. How long ago did dinosaurs live? Were people alive at that time? How do we know what dinosaurs were like? Where did they live? Let each child select a dinosaur book for check-out and research.
- Watch a video on dinosaurs. Students should take notes during the video on a teacher-supplied worksheet that covers the video's content.
- Supply a research worksheet to be used with individual books or websites. Before beginning research, students should choose one dinosaur to focus on. On the worksheet, have spaces for students to describe "their" dinosaur, including any special characteristics, herbivorous vs. carnivorous, size, bipedal or quadripedal, area of the world where fossils have been located. Let children work in pairs to help one another gather information.
- Take turns, as computers are available, to access ZoomDinosaurs.com. Let each child read the short entry about his/her dinosaur and perform the "Unscramble the Picture" activity at this site. Let the student print out the unscrambled picture quiz and the template (to be colored) for his/her dinosaur.
- Students will present their dinosaurs to the class in oral presentations, using the facts collected from both the books and the Web. Book pictures and computer print-outs retrieved can be part of each presentation. As a fun quiz at the end of each presentation, use the "Word-Unscramble" from the ZoomDinosaurs.com .
- Activity sheets from ZoomDinosaurs.com can be handed out as a learning reinforcement.
- Additional Ideas: A how-to lesson in drawing dinosaurs will be a fun experience as the unit winds down. Using How To Draw Dinosaurs, or a similar book, present step-by-step for drawing a dinosaur. Coloring and adding background to the dinosaurs conclude this lesson.
