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My Adopted Dinosaur (Grades 4-6)
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- Activity 1
- Did you know that fewer than 1% of all dinosaurs that ever lived have been discovered? Imagine how exciting it would be to discover the remains of a dinosaur that no one had heard of before. Or even better–what if you discovered a dinosaur egg? And what if that egg was almost ready to hatch? You could expect a very unusual pet! What might the dinosaur look like when it grows up? What would it need to eat? Where would it sleep? These are all things you need to think about, because in this activity you are going to hatch your own personal dinosaur. Follow the numbered steps to find out what to do.
- Objectives
- Students will explore the Dinosaur Gallery to investigate various kinds of dinosaurs and their special features.
- Students will analyze dinosaur names for their meanings by accessing information about Latin and Greek roots in the DinoRoots table.
- Students will describe and draw a "new" dinosaur and tell how it lives within its environment, based on its name and on its similarity to known dinosaur species.
- Activity 1
- This activity will work well for students working either individually or in pairs. Your students’ access to computers at home or school will affect your choice of how to use the activity.
- If your class’s access to computers is limited, you may have students do parts of the activity offline. Print out and reproduce the DinoRoots page for students to use when computers are not available to them. You may also print out the Adopt-A-Dino Fact Sheet for students to complete by hand, if necessary, after they have done their online research.
- Decide ahead of time whether students will be using a drawing program or traditional art supplies to create pictures of their dinosaurs. Again, your decision will depend on the equipment you have and on how often your students may use it.
- have physical features and behaviors that match the root words of its name
- have anatomy and physiology that are appropriate to its way of life; for example, a predatory dinosaur needs physical features that help it to catch and kill its food, while an herbivorous dinosaur may have a long, flexible neck to browse plants
- fit logically in the Dinosaur Gallery; for example, a carnivore should display bird-like feet and an upright posture, an herbivore should walk on all fours
- Point out to students that meat-eaters were not necessarily huge and threatening, like Tyrannosaurus rex, nor were plant-eaters necessarily small or weak. As is true in today’s world, which has large and small herbivores and carnivores, herbivorous and carnivorous dinosaurs came in many sizes. Have them view a variety of dinosaurs in the Dinosaur Gallery so they become familiar with a range of sizes and types.
- Remind students to consider their dinosaur’s needs while completing the Adopt-A-Dino Fact Sheet. For example, if a dinosaur needs to sleep a lot, why does it need to? If it is a small dinosaur, does it need to eat more often than a large one? If it catches its food, how does it do that? Does it chase its food down, does it surprise it, or does it have another method?
- This section contains links to an online bookstore, Amazon.com, which will enable you to order many of the titles listed below.
For adults
- Farlow, James O., and M.K. Brett-Surman (editors), The Complete Dinosaur. Indiana University Press, 1997.
- "The 40-plus chapters range from raw, cutting-edge science . . . to surveys of the history of dinosaur collecting that are suitable for even the most jargon-shy readers." (Amazon.com review)
- Curry, Phillip J., and Kevin Padian (editors), Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs. Academic Press, 1997.
For readers ages 9-12
- Arnold, Caroline, and Richard Hewett (photographer), Dinosaurs All Around: An Artist’s View of the Prehistoric World. Clarion Books, 1997.
- "On a visit to the workshop of Stephen and Sylvia Czerkas, where a life-size dinosaur model is being constructed, the reader learns what dinosaurs really looked like, how they moved, and what color skin they had." (Amazon.com book description)
- Dixon, Dougal, Dinosaurs: Fossil Hunters (Fun with a Purpose Books). Boyds Mills Press, 1996.
- This book looks at how dinosaurs were discovered and how their remains are dug from the ground, examined, and put together by scientists to allow us to see how they must have looked millions of years ago.
- The Dinosaur Library Books (various authors). The Rourke Book Company, 1991. [Note: This is on back order only.]
- Series of books, each describing a day in the life of a particular dinosaur, including physical characteristics, habits, and natural environment.
CORRELATIONS TO NATIONAL SCIENCE EDUCATION STANDARDS
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Grades K-4
Content Standard C: Life Science
The characteristics of organisms
Organisms and their environments
Content Standard D: Earth and Space Science
Properties of earth materials
Grades 5-8
Content Standard C: Life Science
Regulation and behavior
Diversity and adaptations of organisms
Content Standard D: Earth and Space Science
Earth’s history
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT top of page
ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION
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A well-researched dinosaur will
Skills Development: modeling, decoding words, classifying, synthesizing new information, relating structure and function
TEACHING TIPS top of page
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
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