All about dinosaurs, fossils and prehistoric animals by Everything Dinosaur team members.
27 09, 2016

Staff Rooms Islands of Calm and Serenity

By | September 27th, 2016|General Teaching|Comments Off on Staff Rooms Islands of Calm and Serenity

Staff Rooms – Islands of Calm

As team members at Everything Dinosaur like to arrive nice and early at schools prior to delivering a dinosaur or fossil themed workshop, we very often get the chance to visit the staff room.  We can tell a lot about the school from the staff room, the orderly lay out of information on the walls, every inch of space (in most schools), being occupied by helpful and important information about child welfare, safe guarding and school activities.  The tidy sink area with the dishwasher emptying rota clearly displayed – oh happy days.  We think of the staff room as being a little island of calm inside a busy learning environment.

Everything Dinosaur

Located on one of the more prominent walls is the master whiteboard.  This for us, is the very hub of the school, its centre, its beating heart.  Written on the board are lots of notes for the teachers, teaching support team members and the school administrators, all the information required to help the school run efficiently and smoothly.  Most whiteboards are divided up into days of the week, this helps the staff to see at a glance what is going on and when.  A well organised staff room, equipped with a well organised white board does say a lot about the school.  Sometimes, team members at Everything Dinosaur even get a mention!

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Fame as Everything Dinosaur and Palaeontology is Mentioned on the Notice Board

The FS2/Year 1 class have a palaeontology lab.

The FS2/Year 1 class have a palaeontology laboratory.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

We even got an emoticon 🙂 on the notice board.

Arriving Early in Plenty of Time for a Dinosaur Workshop

Team members always like to arrive early.  With dinosaur themed school workshops to deliver up and down the country, we certainly travel a lot in our work, but we try our best to arrive in plenty of time.  We do not want to worry the teachers and a late arrival could upset their teaching plans.  We know ourselves just how stressful it can be waiting for a school visitor to turn up.

For dinosaur toys, models and gifts: Dinosaur Toys, Models and Gifts.

27 09, 2016

Dinosaurs Roar with Jonah!

By | September 27th, 2016|Educational Activities, Main Page, Teaching|0 Comments

Jonah Class Explore Dinosaurs

It was a busy morning for the Reception class at Astbury St Mary’s Church of England Primary School.  It was also a busy morning for Everything Dinosaur.

Class Jonah have been learning all about dinosaurs and the enthusiastic teaching team had invited a member of the Everything Dinosaur staff into the school to explore dinosaurs and fossils.  The spacious hall was taken over and turned into a mini dinosaur museum and the budding young palaeontologists quickly learned that they had more fingers on their hands than a Tyrannosaurus rex.

Dinosaurs as a Term Topic

Dinosaurs as a term topic was proving very popular amongst the children as they settled into full-time education, the girls were delighted to hear that a girl T. rex grew up to be bigger and stronger than a boy T. rex!  As far as we can tell, the female Tyrannosaurs were probably bigger than the males.

Lots of Creative Dinosaur Drawings on Display

FS2 children draw prehistoric landscapes.

Drawings of a prehistoric landscape by FS2 children.

Picture credit: St Mary’s Primary School/Everything Dinosaur

A Well-organised Classroom

The well-organised classroom already had lots of dinosaur themed drawings and models on display.  The children had made some pointy dinosaur teeth (probably a meat-eater) and the walls were decorated with some lovely prehistoric animal drawings.   The class teacher Miss Irwin, had challenged her class to imagine what a prehistoric landscape looked like, the children had certainly produced some very imaginative drawings.

For dinosaur toys, models and gifts: Dinosaur Gifts and Toys.

The dinosaur food we brought with us helped support the children’s learning about herbivores and carnivores and we note that on the Jonah class blog there are some pictures of a dinosaur plant-eater/meat-eater sorting exercise that our expert suggested the children attempt to help reinforce their understanding about the diets of different dinosaurs.

Dinosaur Land with an Erupting Volcano

FS2 draw dinosaurs.

Reception draw a volcano.

Picture credit: St Mary’s Primary School/Everything Dinosaur

Did Dinosaurs Have Phones?

Prior to our visit, the children under the supervision of Miss Irwin and with the support of Mrs Ainscough, had come up with some super questions about dinosaurs that they would like to explore.  The eager learners busy practising their phonics and getting to grips with reading wanted to learn lots of amazing facts about life in the past.

Questions About Dinosaurs from Jonah Class

Questions about dinosaurs from Reception.

Dinosaur questions from FS2

Picture credit: St Mary’s Primary School/Everything Dinosaur

The Big Teeth of Dinosaurs

Sebastian asked why do dinosaurs have big teeth?  Toby enquired why dinosaurs have bones?  Brad questioned whether there were dinosaurs in the playground?  Some news for you Toby, perhaps some birds like Robins, Magpies and Blue Tits will visit your dinosaur museum outside.  Birds are so closely related to some types of dinosaur that, technically, birds are dinosaurs.  Jude asked did dinosaurs have phones?  That’s an interesting question!  With T. rex having such short arms and only two fingers on each hand, do the children think that this dinosaur could make a phone call?  If you happen to receive a text from a T. rex what would it say?

Did Dinosaurs Have Phones?

Did dinosaurs have phones?

Reception class consider whether dinosaurs had phones and how closely related birds are to dinosaurs.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

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