Dinosaur Theme Activities for the Classroom
Download the “Dinosaur Dig with George!” worksheets to explore fossils and fossil hunting with your young students. Host a dinosaur dig on the playground!
- Dinosaurs are popular with young children. What dinosaur names do your students already know? Make a class list of familiar dinosaurs.
- Have a dinosaur week in your class. Each day, learn about a new dinosaur, read a different dinosaur story, and enjoy a dinosaur-themed snack (Cretaceous carrots, pterodactyl pretzels, etc.).
- Dinosaurs don’t exist any longer, but we can learn about them from fossils of dinosaur bones. Scientists must be patient and careful when looking for dinosaur bones buried in the earth. They dig, sift, and dust any bones they find. They collect the separate bones found in one area and then put them back together again like a puzzle. Download the “Dinosaur Dig with George!” worksheets (Fossil Puzzle and Fossil Hunting) and help your curious learners become classroom fossil fans.
- It’s hard to visualize just how huge many dinosaurs were. Help your students grasp the enormity of Apatosaurus, more commonly known as Brontosaurus, by measuring his 75-foot length on the playground, sidewalk, or along a school hallway. Divide 75 by the number of students in your class and give each child a length of twine, string, or yarn in that number of inches (for example, 15 students would each need a 5-foot length). Then have your curious learners stretch their string on the ground in one continuous length, with each string end touching the one before and after it. If your students line up along the line and hold hands, how many kids will it take to reach the length of the mighty Apatosaurus?
Fossil Hunting: Download the PDF
Fossil Puzzle: Download the PDF