DINOSAURS

DINOSAURS
Author(s):
Jessica Pitrelli and Jill Jaynes
Adapted from Laurie Sybert located at http://www.intime.uni.edu/video/019mole/8/

Grade Level: 2nd
Timeframe: This would be somewhat of a class project that would go on for about two weeks, forty-five minutes a day. This would more than likely be part of a science unit or could be in place of their centers for a few weeks.
Lesson Description or Explanation
Throughout this unit of study the students will be learning about the different types of dinosaurs, their habitats, and statistics that involve dinosaurs. They will be working in small groups and as a whole class to learn about dinosaurs. They will be using all different subjects (mathematics, art, writing, and reading) and will present their findings in numerous ways including presentations and poetry.

Indiana Curricular Standards
English/Language Arts
• 2.5.4 Write rhymes and simple poems.
• 2.5.6 Write for different purposes and to a specific audience or person.
Mathematics
• 2.5.1 Measure and estimate length to the nearest inch, foot, yard,
centimeter, and meter.

ISTE Standards
2.Communication and Collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance,to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:
a) interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing
a variety of digital environment and media.
3.Technology Operations and Concepts
Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations. Students:
a) understand and use technology systems.

Assessments Formative/Summative
Formative: The benefit of having two teachers in the classroom allows for more individual interactions with the students. Each small group will meet with one of the teachers twice a week to ensure that all students are understanding and processing acquired knowledge. Through individual meetings with the groups and kid-watching observations teachers will be able to guide their students in their learning.

Summative: The completed PowerPoint that the students put together will be the final assessment over the entire unit.

Prior Knowledge
Curricular Knowledge or Skills: Basic writing skills and ability to measure high numbered lengths using different tools
Technology Knowledge: Basic technology of computer skills, digital camera skills, and PowerPoint presentations

Technology
Internet Resources: http://www.yahooligans.com,http://www.enchantedLearning.com
http://www.thunderlizards.com

Hardware: SMARTBoard, Calculators, Digital Camera

Software: Microsoft PowerPoint


Day 1: Begin by introducing children to the poem Giant Dinosaurs by Erna Rowe; Thematic Poems Songs and Fingerplays by Meish Goldish, Scholastic, 1973, on the SMART Board and cassette player. Pair off the children and have each pair act out the motions of the dinosaurs in one of the verses. Ask children to look at toy dinosaurs and decide which of the toy dinosaurs would best represent each of the types described in the poem. Show students the life-size footprint of a Dilaphosaurus, have them place their hands on the footprint to compare size. Have the children trace their feet and place them inside the dinosaur footprint. Look up the place on the United States wall map where the dinosaur footprint was found. (Found in Pennsylvania) Read the story What Happened to Patrick’s Dinosaurs? By Carol Carrick, Illustrated by Donald Carrick.
Day 2: Write a poem on the SMART Board using the word dinosaur down the side. Children use words that they think describe dinosaurs. Pull up Internet sites http://www.yahooligans.com,http://www.enchantedLearning.com,& http://www.thunderlizards.com to research dinosaurs. Have children highlight facts about whether that dinosaur is a plant eater or a meat eater as well as its height, weight, and length. (Brachiosaurus is 85 feet long, 40 feet tall and weighed 70-80 pounds, etc.) How do we know this information if there are no more dinosaurs around today? (by examining the remains) Discuss that remains of something living are called fossils. Where can we see fossils today? (museums) Have the students choose their favorite dinosaur and make a dinosaur information card on it. On one side of the card, have them draw a picture of their dinosaur. On the other side, have them list interesting information such as the creature’s size and eating habits.
Day 3: Watch the Magic School Bus Video on Dinosaurs, In the Time of Dinosaurs. Talk about what Miss Frizzle and her class found on their trip. How does that compare to what we found out on the Internet at our dinosaur sites? Where else can we find information about dinosaurs? (Encyclopedias & literature about dinosaurs) Give the students time to peruse some of the dinosaur resources available such as: In the Time of Dinosaurs by Joanna Cole, Illustrated by Bruce Degen, the Golden Book set I Love Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs- a Scholastic First Discovery Book by Gallimard Jeunesse, Claude Delafosse, and James Prunier and Illustrated by James Prunier and Henri Gleron, Tyrone the Terrible by Hans Wilhelm, Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo by William Joyce, Little Grunt and the Big Egg by Tommie dePaola. Keep these literature sets available for students to peruse at their leisure during this entire unit.
Day 4: Pass out calculators. Have the students work in pairs to figure out how many of them it would take to equal a particular dinosaur’s height or weight such as a T-Rex or Brontosaurus. Hand out tape measures, go outside, and work as a group to make a drawing of one kind of dinosaur such as the Brachiossaurus, or T-Rex. Take a picture with a digital camera of the children lying inside the drawing to compare sizes.
Day 5: Become paleontologists. Make plaster molds of a shark tooth or a raptor claw. While students are waiting for their turn to mix plaster and use the molds, they interact on the SMARTBoard with the CD-ROM “The Magic School Bus Explores in the Age of Dinosaurs.”
Day 6-7: (This may take 1-2 days longer depending on the extent of the power point presentation.) Make a power point presentation using the SMARTBoard Notebook editing feature, cut and paste, Internet images, digital camera photographs, children’s drawings, poems, etc. Children take turns writing a sentence that they know to be true about dinosaurs from the facts that we have gained throughout our study of dinosaurs. Begin by opening Microsoft Office Power Point, select a template, and copy the template several times. (After you have chosen the template, push control C, then Control V as many times as needed.) Now the templates are ready when the children commit their writing. Next open up the SMARTBoard writing block by pushing the keyboard button on the frame of the SMARTBoard. Children write their sentence for the story in the writing block and then edit the sentence. When the sentence is correct, they press the commit key to send their writing to a Power Point slide. After each child has had an opportunity to participate, we go back to add Internet images, digital pictures, drawings, etc. to each slide. After the slide show is complete, you can set the appropriate time needed for the children to read the story completely.

Differentiated Instruction

ESL
ESL students will be able to use the Google translation tool along with http://translation.paralink.com/ , http://babelfish.altavista.com/, and www.worldlingo.com as translation resources. A teacher may need to assist the students in learning how to use these tools and resources. Working in small groups will also be beneficial for ESL students.

Challenge/Extend
A challenge or extension to the unit could be for students to do an additional in depth study on one particular dinosaur that interest them.

Special Needs
In our class there are currently not any students with special needs.
*Students with special needs would benefit in this unit from working in small groups. In small groups students will be able to help each other and work together.