Teacher – Tina Roche
Nursery Nurse – Abidina Kallon
Dinosaurs
Reception Spring Term
CLL – communication, language and literacy
Describe and name a dinosaur they have designed.
Adopt a role e.g. a palaeontologist in the Dinosaur Museum role play area (fill with papier mache fossils, paintbrushes, magnifying glasses, maps etc.).
Create a reading area of fiction and non-fiction books on the topic. Share dinosaur stories.
Compose new dinosaur names, possibly to describe their own designs e.g. ‘Meanosaurus’ or using their own
names e.g. ‘Oliverosaurus’.
List adjectives to describe a dinosaur
Children to write a description of a dinosaur for the others to solve.
Missing/Wanted posters describing dinosaur.
Write like a dinosaur with ‘claws’ in mud, put lolly sticks through rubber gloves.
M – Maths
Number – have a dinosaur/egg hunt. Estimate
number of dinosaurs in a jar. Number recognition
games. Count the spikes and teeth on different dinosaurs. Doubling groups of dinosaurs and halving groups.
Measures – measure out the actual length or height of a dinosaur. Use large dinosaur feet to measure length outside.
Use small dinosaurs to measure length and height around the classroom. Make clay bones and when dry order them by size.
Shape– create dinosaur pictures using various shapes, 2D and 3D.
Blindfold friend and give directions to find a hidden dinosaur.
Handling Data – create a class pictogram or graph
of favourite dinosaurs. Collect data on dinosaurs.
Group dinosaurs using own criteria.
Group dinosaurs into tens, count in tens to find the total.
One more/less/addition/subtraction with small dinosaurs.
UW- understanding the world
Discuss changes caused by time.
What do you think the earth looked like when dinosaurs roamed? How is it different now? (Create a dinosaur land in the small world tray using ferns, sand etc.).
Group dinosaurs according to observations e.g. horns/no horns, walks on 2 legs/walks on 4 legs etc.
Freeze mini dinosaurs in ice and investigate how to free them.
Use the internet to find places in the world where dinosaur fossils have been found.
Play a dinosaur habitat game, explore features each dinosaur had.
Talk about how dinosaurs were mainly reptiles & laid eggs to have babies.
Make a volcano, experiment by making it explode using vinegar & soda bicarbonate.
Explain that some dinosaurs were plant eaters, and some ate meat.
Make pancakes and chocolate rice crispy cakes – observe the changes.
PD – physical development
Develop gross motor movements to mimic various
dinosaurs e.g. moving on all fours, on two legs, flapping wings etc.
Develop fine motor movements through digging,
scraping, chipping etc. at fossils using various small
tools.
Dinosaur stations game – call dinosaur name and
children follow commands to travel to correct station e.g. “Stomp to stegosaurus”
Provide modelling clay for children to make their own dinosaurs.
Junk modelling dinosaurs.
Digging in the fossil excavation area.
PSED – personal, social and emotional development
Discuss the importance of looking after our world
and caring for the environment
What does the term ‘extinct’ mean?
What would happen if dinosaurs lived now?
EAD – expressive arts and design
Make dinosaur skeletons using pipe cleaners or collages using various dried pasta shapes
Design & create models using recycled materials.
Explore using various materials such as papier mache (place a small dinosaur in a balloon, inflate then cover with papier mache. Children can crack open the egg & identify the baby dinosaur) & plaster of paris (use to create an imprint of a skeleton or foot print and bury in soil/sand for children to discover)
Make paper mache volcanoes, make the volcanoes erupt.
Create a musical dinosaur dance using dinosaur music.
Make dinosaur skeletons from pipe cleaners. Make collages using dried pasta shapes.
Use plaster of paris to make dinosaur footprints/skeletons.
Use macaroni to make dinosaurs and tea leaves for mud to make an excavation picture.