Author: Joyce Milton
Bibliographic Information: Random House, New York, 1985
Summary: Brief and simple descriptions of the various kinds of dinosaurs which lived millions of years ago.
Reading level: 1 -- 2
interest
level: 1 -- 4
1.Pre-reading activity:
Direct students to create paragraphs or visual
graphs on some of the most distinguishing features of dinosaurs.
What features were most useful for survival? For eating? For
locomotion? For confrontations?Ask students three reading activity
defend their choices.
2.Journal activity:
Have students write a summary of what they
think it was like when the dinosaurs lived. Each student could share
his/her summary with another classmate.
3.Learning activities (across the curriculum):
a.(Language Arts) Provide each student with one of the dinosaur names. Direct each student to find information on the dinosaur and write a paragraph about it. Students with the same dinosaurs can be paired later to compare notes.Have the information combined into a class book.
b. (Art, Language Arts) Have each student create their own original dinosaur. Students can provide detailed descriptions of their invented dinosaurs and give them appropriate names.
c.(Science) Staff illustrations of dinosaurs show them with brown or green skin, scientists are not sure of the exact color of dinosaurs skin. Ask students to conduct some research and propose reasons why illustrations of dinosaurs show them with green or brown skin.Could dinosaurs have had blue skin? Read skin?
d.(Music) Have small groups of students each choose one of their favorite dinosaurs from the book. Ask groups members to take a familiar or popular song and rewrite the lyrics using dinosaur words.
For example:
(to the tune "I've been Working on the Railroad")
I've been watching stegosaurus
All the live long day
I've been watching stegosaurus
Just to see what he would say
Can't you hear him munching, crunching
Rise up and start to eat a tree
Don't you ever want to meet him
Because
he will make you flee.
4.Discussion Questions:
a.What if you lived when the dinosaurs did, would life be different?
b.What if you when out to play one day and found a dinosaur in your backyard.What would be the first thing you would say?
c.What if the dinosaurs never became extinct?
d.What
if you found a clue that led you to believe a dinosaur was still living.
What would you do?