Dinosaur unit study for a 5 year old boy

[Heather in OK]

Up until now I've put together little unit studies for my girls. You know, things like gardens, weather, etc. Things I know a good bit about.

 

My youngest is all about dinosaurs right now so I want to seize the opportunity. I know a little about dinosaurs but not enough to put together a unit (i.e. topics, activities).

 

What links and resources can you share?? It doesn't have to be anything real in depth. Just enough for me to organize my thoughts and put a few (easy) activities together for him.

 

Thanks!!

[Sherry in OH]

Enchanted Learning's dinosaur site was recommended in the notes to one of many books on dinosaurs we borrowed from the library.

 

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/index.html

[TracyP]

 

Homeschoolshare has one that we used last year. I modified it some - made it mostly secular, made a "book" instead of a lapbook. It was very fun. My ds just pulled out his book yesterday to look at.

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

Are you looking for Christians materials? Or secular? If you are looking for Christian I highly recommend Dinosaurs by Design and Wonders of God's World Dinosaur Activity book. The Wonders of Gods World is a book where your dc will color pictures as you read and explain the info at the bottom of the page (it is for grades 3-6 as independant- but I am planning on doing this with my ds also and it is very appropriate to do if you read and explain the text at the bottom of the page for him! He will then get to color the page.

[Kfamily]

This site requires membership but the membership is free. You just have to fill out the form online and get a password. Anyway they have a huge unit on dinosaurs.

 

http://www.learningpage.com/

 

Here are samples from the dinosaur unit:

 

http://www.learningpage.com/free_pages/galleries/dino.html

[patchfire]

We're using First Dinosaur Encyclopedia with the Let's Read and Find Out books about dinosaurs.

[Skadi]

A few book suggestions...

 

Prehistoric Actual Size by Steve Jenkins

Encyclopedia Prehistorica Dinosaurs by Sabuda (this pop-up book is amaaaaazing)

Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story by Lisa Westberg Peters

Evolution: How All Living Things Came to Be by Daniel Loxton

[runmiarun]

If you're near a Target, their Dollar Zone has some K-2 workbooks about dinosaurs that give a pretty decent introduction to them. Some pages have dot-to-dot dinosaurs, fill in the letters, etc. Plus, they have stickers at the back for when ds completes the pages. I keep a stash in the van for road trips and unexpected delays.

[Heather in OK]

Thanks!! :)

 

We're using First Dinosaur Encyclopedia

I tried to get him to check that one out this morning when we were at the library!

[Guest]

:lurk5:

[Just Robyn]

I used the internet and books to find out the time periods during which the dinosaurs lived. We made a 20 foot timeline out of butcher paper of the mesozoic and cenozoic eras and colored each period a different color. I believe we had 1" = 1 million years. We laminated it and hung it on the wall. It was interesting to see that the time during which the dinosaurs lived took up so many feet, but homo sapiens took up less than an inch. The visual aspect of that was good - seeing just one tiny purple strip for homo sapiens.

 

Then we found coloring pages of dinosaurs online, cut them out, colored them, and laminated them. We read a book about each dinosaur we cut/colored/laminated and then stuck each one on its proper place on the timeline. - thinking about this now - it would have been a lot easier and less time consuming to use tape in different colors and dinosaur stickers.

 

In the books about the dinosaurs we found out the length - head to tip of tail - of each one and cut a piece of string to the correct length (good for practice measuring) and we took them outside and stretched them out to see just how big the dinosaurs were. It was pretty amazing.

 

We printed out a blank world map for each dinosaur and colored the area in which it lived - according to where bones have been found.

 

We watched episodes of Bonehead on Discovery Education Streaming.

[CandaceC]

I was also going to post the Homeschool Share dinosaur unit that someone already shared...it is WONDERFUL!! We loved it!! :)

[HomesteadMommy]

You didn't say if you were looking for Christian or secular. But the homeschoolshare one looks great. Also our kids love the show Dinosaur Train and there area lots of games/activities on that website to. I can't believe how much they've learned about dinosaurs from that show! They can tell me lots of the family groups of dinosaurs and the different kinds in them, what they ate etc.

Also the Dr. Dino site has some great books and videos to order as well.

[CathyT]

There is a show on PBS that is about dinosaurs and a paleontologist shares a few facts on each episode. PBS also has a game or two related to it. Dinosaur Train is the name of the show.