dino unit

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Home : 2004 : January : 3

dino unit
By maryellen

Well, we do use the past as a teaching tool at any grade level; Colombus can be a starting point for a geography lesson, Martin Luthur King for a unit on discrimination, but Karen has a point. When primary teachers spend
time on a Halloween, teddy bear or winter theme or have a pajama day, you are not really teaching the class about Halloween, teddy bears, snow, or pajamas, but using their enthusiasm for the theme to teach curriculum based outcomes in language arts, math, science, etc.
Primary students are enthused about dinosaurs, there are loads of great storybooks and activities around, so you can

be pretty sure of both their interest and lots of available materials. To start planning your unit, FIRST check your curriculum. If you plan to do this unit before spring, maybe it's appropriate for some of these goals; to introduce research skills, descriptive adjectives, use of sequencing vocabulary in a story, time lines, measurement. Of course enjoyment of great stories, poetry, songs and art activities will be part of the unit too, and learning a few facts and some new vocab is never a bad thing. Once you know what curriculum outcomes you are working on, you can look for dino- themed activities to produce that outcome. If you are interested in some dino themed Grade One class activities, email me and I'll send you some ideas from my classroom.