RAWR! Don’t let the idea of a short school week scare you away from engaging students in rigorous learning. Better yet, use these times of the year to excite students about a topic that sparks their curiosity and imagination – like Dinosaurs!
Dinosaurs are the ultimate star of many kids’ imaginations. We created several Dinosaur Projects for kids to help them dig deep into the prehistoric world of these fascinating creatures.
Dinosaur Learning Activities
Packed with fascinating facts and hands on activities, students explore dinosaurs through various learning activities. Moreover, each dinosaur learning activity is connected to one key subject area: reading, writing, math, and science.
Each of these activities is further connected to one bigger guiding question. The guiding question helps students see the connection between each learning activity and how they all connect. More so, how they all connect to the main theme.
Connecting each dinosaur learning activity to a guiding question and an overall theme is one way this themed unit supports project based learning. Inviting students to explore the theme through the lens of a real world experience further supports project based learning. Let’s take a peek at the real world experience students will engage with in this project based learning dinosaur theme unit!
Guiding Question: How can we uncover secrets of the dinosaurs’ past?
Students set out to answer this guiding question, how can we uncover secrets of the dinosaurs’ past? by taking on the role of a paleontologist. This provides students with a real world experience of exploring dinosaurs as a paleontologist would.
To support first and second graders with exploring the world of dinosaurs as a paleontologist, we organized this one day unit into four parts. Each part presents students with a task that helps them learn more about dinosaurs and prepare for the next task.
4 Part Learning Tasks
- Part 1: Learn about Dinosaurs
- Part 2: Teach others about dinosaurs
- Part 3: Explore combinations of fossils in a quarry
- Part 4: Build a dinosaur fossil.
After students complete each task, they complete a mission checkpoint. The mission checkpoints test each student’s knowledge about dinosaurs and their skills in different subject areas. Once students successfully complete each checkpoint they earn a paleontology patch.
Keep reading to uncover more about each dinosaur learning activity to see what students will learn and the skills they will demonstrate at each checkpoint.
Dinosaur Reading Comprehension
The first checkpoint assesses students’ reading skills and comprehension. To prepare students to complete their reading comprehension checkpoint they get to learn about dinosaurs through different informational texts.
The primary text students read is All About Dinos! This informational text teaches students about four different areas related to dinosaurs: Paleontology, Dinosaurs, Extinction, and Fossils.
In addition to the All About Dinos text, students have access to QR codes to access additional information about dinosaurs. This includes informational videos and additional texts.
Students are given an All About Dinosaurs graphic organizer to help them keep track of what they learn about dinosaurs. This note-taking sheet is a key resource that students will use to complete the next task.
Students can also use their notes to help them complete their first checkpoint where they are asked to demonstrate their reading comprehension through three multiple choice questions.
Dinosaur Writing Prompt
As educators, we all know that one of the best ways for kids to comprehend new information is to teach it to others. Therefore, once students learn all about dinosaurs during part one, they turn around and teach others in part two.
During task two, students practice their writing skills as they teach others about dinosaurs by creating an All About Dinosaurs informational brochure. Just like the note-taking worksheet for task one, we have included a ready-to-use template to use for the informational brochures.
The informational brochure template allows students to share what they learned while reading during part one. They will specifically share information about the appearance of dinosaurs, the extinction of dinosaurs, and a few fun facts about dinosaurs. There is also room for students to share what they learned about paleontologists and fossils.
To further support student learning, you may choose to incorporate a speaking and listening component and ask students to share what they wrote with a partner. Furthermore, students can take these informational brochures home to teach their families about dinosaurs!
Before students move onto the next part of their paleontology exploration they have to demonstrate what they learned about dinosaurs through their writing skills. Once each student writes their answer to the checkpoint prompt, write what you learned about dinosaurs, and they can move on to the next part of the dinosaur project.
Dinosaur Math Activity
Armed with a strong knowledge of dinosaurs, part three of this paleontology theme unit is to help students connect dinosaurs to other areas of learning. In this next task, students explore dinosaurs through math!
The task connects math and dinosaurs through a learning activity called Number Combinations Fossil Excavation. In this activity, kids use their additional skills to explore combinations of dinosaur fossils found in the quarry.
This dinosaur learning activity goes beyond just writing numbers though. As a project based learning experience, this activity includes hands on learning by asking students to move images of fossils from the quarry into the packing crate. Then, each student writes the number for each type of fossil on their math worksheet.
Just like the previous two checkpoints, students may use their worksheet to help them complete the checkpoint assessment for part three. Once they have completed the checkpoint to demonstrate their math skills, it is time for the final learning activity.
Dinosaur STEM Challenge
The final checkpoint for this dinosaur project is a science checkpoint. More specifically, a STEM challenge.
Since students have been learning about dinosaurs through the lens of a paleontologist, this final learning activity asks students to create a new dinosaur skeleton model for the museum to display.
This challenge continues to help students build their knowledge of dinosaurs through hands-on learning. It also further builds their understanding of how one theme can be explored through several different content areas.
If you are new to our STEM challenges, don’t worry! Everything you need to help guide your new paleontologists through this challenge is written in the lesson plans. Furthermore, we have included a list of building resources that are commonly found in an elementary classroom.
In addition to the STEM lesson plans and list of building supplies, this task also includes worksheets that students can use to keep track of their experiment. As with the other tasks, these notes can then be used for the final checkpoint.
The final checkpoint at the end of this dinosaur STEM challenge asks students to demonstrate their understanding of the vocabulary they learned while building their skeletons.
Once students complete their final checkpoint, they are officially declared a paleontologist who is ready for dinosaur adventure!
More Dinosaur Learning Activities
These activities can be used to extend learning or to differentiate learning. Moreover, you can divide the four lessons above into four days of learning and combine them with these additional activities. You choose what best suits your students and your needs as a teacher!
Here are the additional activities included in this resource:
- Dino color by number
- Dinosaur vocabulary
- Crack the code riddle
- Fossil match and label activity
- Watercolor dinosaur resist art project
- T-Rex tag
Still want MORE Dino activities! Check out our nonfiction texts read aloud, Fly GuyPresents: Dinosaurs! Informational Text Read Aloud.
Looking for MORE One Day themed units? Check out our other one day project based learning activities! Just like the dinosaur theme unit explored above, these themed units engage students in a full day of exploration through reading, writing, math, and science.
