Dinosaurs: A Prehistoric Adventure for Grades 2-5
By Theresa Hughes-Feletar

Dinosaurs are a constant amazement to children of all ages. The mystery of dinosaurs is what encourages us to know more about them and learn about their amazing existence and their extinction, and therefore makes them an interesting and exciting topic on which to base learning across all areas of the curriculum. Their varying sizes and shapes enables us to use them to learn about numbers and attributes for a mathematical perspective. The mystery and discovery of knowledge by paleontologists makes dinosaurs a perfect foundation on which to develop and extend children’s observation and analytical skills for the science perspective. Recreating bodies and habitats and producing fictional and non-fictional pieces of writing extend children’s language, literacy and artistic abilities, all while developing a sense of social and environmental awareness. Students are encouraged to consider extinction theories and link them to more real immediate issues in their own community regarding endangered species. All these factors make the study of dinosaurs an ideal educational teaching and learning experience.

Some of the topics related to dinosaurs in this module will include:

• What is a dinosaur?
• Fossils
• Theories of extinction
• Dinosaur hunters (paleontologist)
• Dinosaur eggs
• Anatomy and behaviour
• Classifying a dinosaur and dinosaur names

This module contains web sites which demonstrate scientific fact about the life and extinction of dinosaurs. As some of the sites are animated and interactive, it provides excellent opportunity for the students to be active participants in their search for knowledge about dinosaurs.

The teacher resource tour, which is an accumulation of World Wide Web resources related to the study of dinosaurs, is a wealth of information for both teacher and student reference.

Objectives

• To develop and extend knowledge of the many varieties of dinosaurs
• To develop understanding of scientific facts
• To develop an understanding of life, living and extinction
• To develop an understanding of the role of the paleontologist
• To encourage an interest for further study into dinosaurs

Terms to Learn