A “Brummie-saurus”

By | November 11th, 2014|Educational Activities, Main Page, Teaching|0 Comments

Birmingham School Children Learn All About Dinosaurs and Fossils

It was an early start today for an Everything Dinosaur team member as they set off to visit a school in Birmingham (West Midlands), to work with the Year 3 classes who had just started their topic on dinosaurs and fossils.  The focus for the day was to help each class get to grips with working scientifically and to support the intended learning outcomes of the teaching team.

Dinosaurs and Fossils

One of the things we had been asked to do was to help explain what the world looked like during the time of the dinosaurs and how the location of land masses has changed.  Time for us to bring in some of our collection of Permian plant fossils, specifically fossils of various glossopterids to assist us with this aspect of our work.  A map of the world stuck onto the wall of the dance studio where we were based for the day came in very handy.

Lower Key Stage 2 Children

This is the first time a dinosaurs and fossils topic had been introduced at the lower Key Stage 2 level at this school, however, our sharp-eyed photographer spotted a wonderful paper mache sauropod that was lurking in a corridor.  Apparently, this dinosaur had been part of a art project a few years ago.  It was certainly a very striking sculpture.

Diplodocus Inspired Artwork on Display at School

A school's very own version of "Dippy".

A school’s very own version of “Dippy”.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur 

We conducted various experiments (hopefully, our experiment with 3PW will demonstrate tomorrow how fossils can form), we were asked some amazing questions by the budding young scientists and we set each class one of our “palaeontologist challenges” as part of the extension activities.

Our dinosaur expert got some lovely feedback from the children.

“I loved learning all about dinosaurs” – AB

“It was fantastic!” – AM

One of the Year 3 teachers told us:

“The children’s reaction to the workshop was fantastic.  They were all engaged and amazed by the facts and the artefacts!”

Volcanoes in the Dance Studio

The dance studio, where we set up for the day, was also the place where a number of volcano models that had been built by children at the school were being stored.  We felt very much at home.

Models of Volcanoes Built by School Children

Geology on display in the dance studio.

Geology on display in the dance studio.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To see the huge range of dinosaur themed toys and gifts available from Everything Dinosaur: Dinosaur Toys and Gifts.

As part of the agreed extension activities, we set up a little bit of work for the children which links into their ICT studies this term.  We can’t wait to see the results.  Perhaps these Birmingham based school children will design their very own dinosaur, could we have a “Brummie-saurus” on our hands?