Skip to main content

Dinosaurs Theme


Our Dinosaur theme is always a favorite. There are many activities I add to our schedule to help children learn and engage with dinosaurs. We read books and sing the Laurie Berkner "We Are the Dinosaurs" song of course but there's so much more. We color a dinosaur template and then add a plate to their back for every letter of their name.  The student then writes the letters of their name on the plates and gives the dinosaur a background.

I pull out my toy dinosaurs and add them to our centers. In the art center, children can walk a dinosaur through paint and then onto the paper to make footprints.  In the fine motor center, they can stomp the dinosaurs through playdough or build a home for the dinosaur in the block center. In the math center, children can weigh and measure the dinosaur and compare and contrast different types of dinosuars. In the science center, students can look at pictures of dinosaurs and notice characteristics. In the langauge arts center, students can draw a picture of their favorite dinosaur and then using the words cards, write the dinosaurs's name.

My students love the "How Do Dinosaurs..." series. Other dinosaur books we read are:
*"Dinosaur Roar"
*"Dinosaurumpus"
*"When Dinosaurs Came with Everything"
*"The Dinosaur in My Backyard"

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Body and Senses Theme

I usually spend a day for each of the basic five senses and then further the theme by spending a few more days covering the basic parts and functions of the body such as heart, lungs, skin, and brain. For the sense of taste, I give each child something sour (lemon drop), something salty (pretzel), and something sweet (a piece of chocolate) to eat. We discuss the tastes and which they like the best. Then we discuss our tongues. Each student can be given a mirror to look into to see their tongue and the taste buds on it. We read "Jamberry" and try some different flavors of jam. For the sense of smell, I place items in film canisters and allow each child to smell each item and guess what it is. Then we graph which smells we like and do not like. A follow up activity is to ask students to determine which items will have a smell and then walk the items around and have students smell them and determine if their guesses were correct. I use things like mustard, a comb, or...

Nursery Rhyme Theme

 A few years ago when I pulled out Nursery Rhymes to read to my class, I discovered many of them had never heard these stories before.  I grew up on Nursery Rhymes so this was interesting to see. We dove into a unit of Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales and they loved it! This is also a great unit to really focus on rhyming with the children. Blocks, pool noodles, and cups can be used in STEAM challenges to build castles and towers. Straw, sticks, and rocks can also be added to use in building houses when you read "The Three Little Pigs."  We create our own Nursery Rhyme book where the children illustrate the rhymes and then get to take their books home to share.  The students love collecting the pigs and returning them to their pens. We use pink balloons and hula hoops.  We also try to be as nimble and quick as Jack and jump over our own candlesticks.  "The Three Little Kittens" lost their mittens but we play a matching game with ours. ...

Pumpkin Theme

 Every October we learn about pumpkins. Mini pumpkins are brought into the Science Center for every child and we investigate them with magnifying lenses and our senses. We also cut the top off of a large pumpkin and scoop the seeds out to investigate as well.  I allow every child who is interested, a turn scooping seeds out. I never require the students to help if they are not interested.  In the Literacy Center, we use mini pumpkin erasers to trace around letters. Pumpkin stickers can also be used.  We take a field trip to a local pumpkin patch where every child is allowed to pick a pumpkin to take home.  In the Fine Motor/Sensory Center, we make pumpkin pie with orange playdough and rolling pins.  We also count and make patterns in the Math Center with pumpkin erasers or manipulatives. In the Pumpkin STEAM box, I include mini pumpkins, leaves, acorns, magnifying lenses and orange slices of pool noodles that the children can play and e...