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Museum Educator-led Programs
Pre & Post Visit Resources
Dynamic Dinosaurs

Grades Prek-K

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Program Description and Frameworks
Program Outline
Key Terms and Concepts
Classroom Activities
Print and Web Resources
Go to the Gallery of Dinosaurs and Paleontology page

Click here for printable version of all resources listed above

Imagine what the world was like in the time of the dinosaurs in this multi-sensory program. What would it feel like to touch a Triceratops? To stand next to a Stegosaurus? To be a T. rex? Learn more about your favorite dinos and their prehistoric surroundings.

Location: Discovery Room and Dinosaur Gallery
Length: 45 minutes
Grades: PreK - K

Massachusetts Frameworks
Science and Technology/Engineering Strand 2

New York Standards
Standard 4 Science the Living Environment

Introduction
When were the dinosaurs alive? How do we know about them? We will discuss how people learn about dinosaurs by studying fossils.

Discussion with Fossils
A hands-on discussion, using pictures, life-size drawings of tracks and teeth, real fossils and replicas of teeth, skin, eggs, scat and more! Students are shown images of different dinosaurs and asked to describe characteristics of each one, focusing on locomotion, body shape, and specialized adaptations like plates, horns, teeth, and tracks.

This program focuses on:
T. rex, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, and Apatosaurus. Students will also learn what these dinosaurs ate. Students remain active throughout the discussion, making noises and movements the dinosaurs might have made, and examining and touching fossils. Students will also compare their own size to dinosaur size, and compare living and fossilized plants.

Interactive Story
Students act out sounds and motions while a Museum Educator tells the story of an Apatosaurus' day.

Conclusion
In the Dinosaur Gallery, see just how long a T. rex actually was. Then dig for replicas of dinosaur bones in our simulated excavation area.

• Dinosaurs are no longer alive today, but were alive long ago. Scientists learn about dinosaurs by studying fossils. Fossils are formed over a long period of time. Fossils are the remains or traces of things that once were alive. Teeth, claws, bones, leaves, and footprints can all become fossilized. Dinosaurs are related to lizards, crocodiles, turtles, and snakes. Like their reptilian relatives, dinosaurs had dry, scaly skin and laid eggs. Some dinosaurs ate meat and some ate plants. Different dinosaurs had different specialized body parts that helped them to survive, like Stegosaurus' plates and Triceratops' horns.
• Many dinosaurs were very large compared to us.

Key Terms Used During the Program
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• Dinosaur
  a group of land-dwelling reptiles who lived on earth and became extinct (are no longer alive) long before human beings existed.
• Fossil
  the remains or traces of something that was once alive and is preserved by minerals (the building blocks of rocks).

Assessment: Create a Dinosaur Word Chart
Before your visit to the Museum, ask the whole class to brainstorm what comes to mind when they think about dinosaurs. Write down and draw key words and ideas. Also encourage students to think about what questions they might like to ask while they are at the Museum. Repeat the exercise after your visit to see what has changed.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Excavation
Give each student a chocolate chip cookie, and encourage them to use skewers, toothpicks, and plastic spoons to "excavate" the chips from their cookie before eating it.

Dino Puppets
Students can make their own dinosaur puppets out of paper bags. Put one arm inside the bag and use your hand to open and close your dinosaur's mouth. The bottom of the bag becomes the dinosaur's face. Use markers, colored paper, and googly eyes to decorate your bag. Don't forget important dinosaur features like horns (snow cone cups make great ready-made horns), plates, and teeth. Discuss with students what kind of teeth a meat-eater would have (sharp and slightly curved) and what kind of teeth a plant-eater would have (long, skinny, pencil-like teeth in the front and/or short, flat teeth [like our molars] on the sides).

Ten Little Dinosaurs
Read Ten Little Dinosaurs by Pattie Schnetzler aloud to the class. Then practice counting with this chant to the tune of "Ten Little Indians.
One little, two little, three little dinosaurs,
Four little, five little, six little dinosaurs,
Seven little, eight little, nine little dinosaurs,
Ten little dinosaur babies.

Make Your Own Stegosaurus Plates
Make a headband out of strips of paper, with a long strip of paper attached to the headband so it hangs over the child's head and down his/her back. Take paper plates, cut them in half, and make a fold along the straight edge so that there is a lip on each one. Staple these to the paper strip so it looks like the back of a Stegosaurus.

Use the Berkshire Athenaeum’s on-line catalogue to search for these print resources in Central/Western Massachusetts.Print Materials For Students

Barner, Bob. Dinosaur Bones. San Francisco: Chronicle Books LLC, 2001. Bright illustrations will keep your students' interest as the book tells how scientists study dinosaurs. It also includes highlights of a few of everyone's favorite dinosaurs.

Mitton, Tony. Dinosaurumpus. New York: Orchard Books, 2002. Join in with Triceratops, Stegosaurus and friends as the dinosaurs stir up a Dinosaurumpus. Students will love the refrain that they can say along with the reader.

Schnetzler, Pattie. Ten Little Dinosaurs. Denver: Accord Publishing Ltd., 1996. The silly escapades of ten different dinosaurs are described in rhyming verses. This book has a pair of large googly eyes that add humor to every page.

Touch and Feel Dinosaur. New York: DK Publishing, Inc., 2002. Touch T. rex's bumpy skin, Triceratops' smooth horns and Stegosaurus' rough plates. This is a good book for students to explore individually.

Yolen, Jane. How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? New York: The Blue Sky Press, 2000. Dinosaurs bring humor to familiar good-night antics known by every child.

Print Materials For Educators

Benton, Mike. Walking with Dinosaurs. New York: DK Publishing, 2000. Clear explanations of how paleontologists know what they know, and how the television show Walking with Dinosaurs was created.

Courtenay-Thompson, Fiona and Mary Lindsday (Ed.) The Visual Dictionary of Dinosaurs (Eyewitness Visual Dictionaries). New York: Dorling Kindersly Publishing, Inc., 1993. A good basic introduction to the dinosaur species and classification, including plenty of images.

Dixon, Dougal et al. The Macmillan Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Creatures. NY: Macmillan, 1988. This book contains a huge number of fantastic color illustrations. It depicts and describes many species of dinosaurs and lesser-known species of prehistoric reptiles, amphibians, birds, fish, and mammals.

Norell, Mark A., Eugene S. Gaffney, and Lowell Dingus. Discovering Dinosaurs In the American Museum of Natural History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. A very informative book with illustrations of fossils in the Museum's collection. It addresses the toughest questions and controversies about dinosaurs, like, were dinosaurs cold-blooded or warm-blooded and did birds evolve from dinosaurs. It also describes the techniques used by paleontologists to study prehistoric life.

Web Materials for Students

Enchanted Learning
This is a fun, educational site for audiences as young as preschool. Visitors will find user-friendly sites about dinosaurs and fossils along with craft projects and printable coloring pages. Rated A+ by Education-World.com.

Nature of New England
Illustrations of dinosaurs discovered in North America.

Zoom Dinosaurs
This is an on-line hypertext book about dinosaurs. It is designed for students of all ages and levels of comprehension with information on dinosaurs, extinction, fossils and more.

Web Materials for Educators NASA Classroom of the Future
This site offers online references, links, activities, crafts, and lesson plans.

Fossil Resource
Two Guys Fossils is a supplier of real fossils, replicas, posters, and dinosaur models, with many items available at reasonable prices. Fossils come with information about the species and the location where the specimen was found.

National Geographic News
A search of the archived news stories will yield many interesting articles about new findings in paleontology in a brief, easy-to-understand format. University of

California Museum of Paleontology
If you are looking for specific information, using their search function is very helpful, as this site has many different kinds of resources to offer, including online exhibits, a site called Dinobuzz covering exciting new research and controversial topics, and modules for educators on topics like Understanding Evolution, Explorations Through Time, and Learning from the Fossil Record.

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's Department of Paleobiology: Dinosaur Exhibits
This site provides information about specific species of dinosaurs and includes images of fossils that are in the Museum's collection. Other features include a Top 10 list debunking common misconceptions, an article on field work, information about prehistoric life forms other than dinosaurs, and a step-by-step look at how dinosaur skeletons are reconstructed for Museum display.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services, an independent Federal grant- making agency dedicated to creating and sustaining a nation of learners by helping libraries and museums serve their communities supports the Berkshire Museum.

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