Dinosaur Unit Kindergarten

[Pages:32]Discovering Dinosaurs

A Kindergarten Unit Plan

Seanna Puszkar

Scope:

The purpose of this unit is for students to investigate and better understand dinosaurs through books, videos, crafts, and activities. This unit reinforces students' curiosities by demonstrating the uniqueness of dinosaurs' appearance and lifestyle. During the unit, students will discover how fossils have unraveled the mystery of dinosaurs, learn about the types of dinosaurs, and explore why dinosaurs have become extinct. Lessons emphasize the diversity of dinosaurs and how they lived including what they ate, what/who eats them, and how they grow. These learning experiences will lead students to consider what it would be like if dinosaurs were still alive.

Rationale:

Children, of course, think that a dinosaur is the most awesome creature in the world. Dinosaurs for kids are plentiful. Stuffed animals, movies, action figures, all represent to children to amazing creatures that dinosaurs were. As we get older, we don't lose the awe that dinosaurs inspire in us. As new dinosaur facts are presented we are all glued to the television or newspaper just trying to comprehend the magnitude of the era in which dinosaurs ruled the world. And it seems that the more we know, the more we want to know. We will forever be enthralled in the process of learning about dinosaurs. The sad thing is, we may never fully know what walking with dinosaurs would be like. We can watch the movies and learning specials, but to have actually walked in their world is a feeling that seems out of reach. However, the more we learn about these amazing creatures, the more we can strive to place ourselves in their world. One day, it

may be possible to get a feel of what living and walking with dinosaurs really was. Until then, we can still dream. Dinosaurs are a topic of high interest to young students with a natural curiosity about the unknown. Moreover, the dinosaur is familiar to nearly everyone, yet often misunderstood. The purpose of this unit is to familiarize students with dinosaurs, and the role they played in our world, while covering multiple objectives across the curriculum. Learning experiences are designed in an engaging way to promote life-long learning.

Essential Question: What if dinosaurs still roamed this Earth?

Unit/Content Questions: What are dinosaurs? What do dinosaurs look like? What do dinosaurs eat? Where did dinosaurs live? How do we know? How did dinosaurs grow? What happened to the dinosaurs? What would it be like if dinosaurs were still around?

Museum

Famous Dinosaurs

Types

Characteri stics

Habitat

Teeth Relatives

Dinosaurs

Fossils/ Bones

Food

Appearance

Dinosaur Eggs

Dinosaur Rhymes

Extinction

Dinosaur Stories

Background Info:

Dinosaurs existed millions of years ago. These giant animals lived on earth 200 million years ago, and they became extinct about 64 million years ago, according to fossil finds. Scientists can only guess what they looked like, what they ate, where they lived and how they died. There are several theories of how dinosaurs became extinct: eggeating mammals ate all the dinosaurs' eggs; a continental shift caused the weather to change, and shallow areas where animals could graze and drink began to disappear; a large star close to earth exploded, emitting deadly cosmic rays that destroyed the dinosaurs; or a meteorite storm on earth caused huge clouds and steam to block the rays of the sun, causing an ice age, during which the warm-blooded mammals that were prey for the dinosaurs could not survive.

The word "dinosaur" means terrible lizard. Dinosaurs lived in the Mesozoic Era, before people populated earth. The earth was warm and covered with plants at the time dinosaurs lived. All dinosaurs lived on land or were amphibious; none had wings or paddles. Dinosaurs' eggs were not huge, but they were hard shelled, and dinosaurs were meat eaters (carnivores) and/or plant eaters (herbivores). All dinosaurs walked fully erect. Modern reptiles like lizards and crocodiles walk with their legs sprawling out from their sides. Dinosaurs are the only reptiles that walked like mammals, some walking on two legs, some on four. All four-legged dinosaurs were herbivores. All carnivores were two-legged, although some herbivores were two-legged as well. All dinosaurs had special skeletal features: unique skull openings, hip arrangements that permitted them to walk erect, and straight thighbones.

Dinosaurs Unit: Dinosaurs: Intro. to Dinosaurs Teacher:

Seanna Puszkar

Grade: Kindergarten

Instructional Strategies: Direct, Interactive, Experiential

Outcomes: CRK.3

Listen, comprehend, and respond to gain meaning in oral texts.

Indicators:

? Satisfy natural curiosity by engaging in inquiry: -Wonder about new ideas and observations -Discuss personal knowledge of a topic ask questions to satisfy personal curiosity and information needs.

? Volunteer personal experiences and feelings prompted by various visuals.

? Follow simple directions correctly and independently (e.g., Please put away your crayons and put your picture on the shelf.) and remember instructions given earlier.

? Listen attentively to others and respond appropriately.

? Identify important information.

TEK.1 Examine observable characteristics of plants, animals, and people in the local environment.

? Pose questions about observable characteristics of plants and animals such as "Do all animals have four legs?", "How do fish breathe?", "Are all plants green?", and "Do plants breathe?"

? Share stories and observations of plants, animals, and people in the local environment with classmates or others.

? Identify similarities and differences in observable characteristics among different plants, among different animals, and among different people

CPK.1

Express ideas through exploration of the elements of dance including action, body, dynamics, relationships, space.

? Use movement to respond to stimuli from diverse sources such as stories, poems, observations, visual images, music, sounds, or objects.

Classroom Management:

? Remind students to raise their hands when they want to answer a question or give an idea for the KWL chart.

? Have the students help to make up actions to the role play. Assist if necessary. ? Remind the students the appropriate way to move on the carpet. Stay on their square as to

not hit the students beside them. Learning Plan

Set:

With the children seated on the floor so that all can see the illustrations and print,

talk about the book, The Day of the Dinosaur. Ask the children if they can tell

what the story is about. Read the story and show the illustrations to the children,

sharing your reactions. Talk about time and size concept.

Place a large drawing of a dinosaur on the board and tell the students that we will be learning about dinosaurs for the next little while.

Development:

? Initiate the students in a discussion about dinosaurs. ? Ask: Are dinosaurs alive today? When were dinosaurs alive?

When we say "It was long ago," what do we mean? Does it mean yesterday? Does

it mean many years ago, before you were born? Before your parents were born?

Explain: It could mean all of these things, but in this unit, when we say "long ago" we are

going to mean a very long time ago. We will be talking about the time when there

were only animals and plants on the land. There were no people. We are talking

about a time that we know very little about, because there were no people around

to remember it and tell stories about. The only way we know

about what went on at that time is that we can dig in the earth and find old of the plants and animals.

Ask:

Raise your hand if you have heard of fossils before.

What is a fossil?

Paleontologists have found fossils, not only of dinosaurs and of plants like

ferns and mosses, but of other kinds of animals.

Most of these animals and plants are no longer alive, but there

are some animals and plants that still resemble these prehistoric animals.

Ask:

What are some animals that you have seen that kind of look like dinosaurs?

Lizards of today, crocodiles, turtles and whales look in many ways similar to animals that

lived on earth at the time of the dinosaurs.

Show pictures of animals and dinosaurs to compare. ? Make a KWL chart of the students know about dinosaurs and what they would like to learn about dinosaurs that they do not already know. Closure: ? Introduce the following role play. ? Read the words out loud and come up with ideas for movements to go with it. ? Repeat the words again and do the movements altogether. The students participate in the following activity:

Choral Speaking and Role Playing

Dinosaurs of Long Ago

The dinosaurs lived long ago,

and walked like this, and that. (Slow, heavy walk movement.)

Some were large (Stretch hands upwards.)

and some were small. (Crouch down.)

Some liked water (Swimming motions.)

and some just walked on land. (Stomp feet.)

Some had wings, that flapped and flapped. (Flap arms.)

Some had long necks, that stretched and stretched. (Hand on neck stretching

upward.)

The meanest, rudest one of all was ferocious Tyrannosaurus Rex.

(Feet apart, hands clawlike, scowl and growl.)

These were the dinosaurs of long ago.

Goodness gracious, where did they go?

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