Dinosaur Workshop Helps Handwriting

Children in Year 3 at Southglade School (Nottinghamshire) got to grips with dinosaurs and fossils as part of their science term topic which focused on prehistoric life.  A fossil expert from Everything Dinosaur was dispatched and he spent a morning with the Year 3 classes helping them to explore life in the past.  One of the key aims of the teaching scheme of work was to help the children develop a better understanding of how fossils form and which rocks are likely to contain fossils.

Rocks and Fossils

The Everything Dinosaur member of staff was able to explain to the children using lots of examples in a session that was orientated towards kinaesthetic learning.

Dinosaurs in Schools

Dinosaurs in school.

Dinosaurs in school. Everything Dinosaur received thank you letters from Year 3 children.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To see the range of edcuational toys and games available from  Everything Dinosaur’s website: Dinosaur Toys and Gifts.

Dinosaur Workshop

Our dinosaur expert had been briefed about one of the teaching objectives required.  The teacher wanted to help motivate the children with their writing, particularly composition. The boys had become less than enthusiastic when it came to writing and sentence construction, although they were very enthusiastic about the dinosaur themed science topic.  During the session the children were set a number of “pinkie palaeontologist challenges” all geared of course, to helping the children with their literacy and writing.

One of the extension activities proposed was for the children to compose a thank you letter to their visitor from Everything Dinosaur, our expert challenged them to write a thank you letter which contained a statement (what they liked best about the dinosaur workshop) and to use proper punctuation.

The children responded eagerly to the challenge and the teaching assistant reported back that the children could not wait to start their letters.  We received some excellent examples, these were posted to the Everything Dinosaur offices, we did respond to all those that required a reply.

Year 3 Children Send in Thank you Letters to Everything Dinosaur

Children compose thank you letters after dinosaur workshop.

Children compose thank you letters after dinosaur workshop.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Thank You Letters

 Commenting on the letters received a spokesperson for the teaching team at Everything Dinosaur stated:

“We do appreciate how difficult it can be sometimes to motivate children in Lower Key Stage 2 with writing tasks.   However, after our workshop it was wonderful to see how enthusiastically the children responded to our challenge and our team members read every single one of the thank you letters we received.”

A teacher responsible for one of the classes praised Everything Dinosaur and stated:

“Everything Dinosaur delivered a fantastic morning.  Correspondence prior to the session was excellent and we were sent a very detailed lesson plan.  The sessions were pitched at the right level for the classes and we received lots of ideas for extension activities, it was a thoroughly enjoyable and informative experience.  Thank you very much.”

It looks like dinosaurs have proved to be a “roaring” success in Nottinghamshire.

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