Introduction: Grade 2 Dinosaur Science Unit
Rationale:
It is important for students to know about what happened in the past. It is important for students to look at the past and learn from it. It is important for students to know that there were animals on the earth long before there were human beings. This is an important topic because dinosaurs create an important link to the present when talking about extinction. There are a lot of animals that are becoming endangered and extinct and it is important for students to know that. It is important for students to realize that at one point dinosaurs were abundant on earth and that something happened to make them extinct and the same thing can happen to animals on earth now if we do not protect them. Students will begin to develop an appreciation for animals and realize that it is up to us to protect them.
I also think that is important for students to learn about dinosaurs because it is a topic that most children are interested in. Many children like to watch shows with dinosaurs such as Jurassic Park, Barney, The Dinosaurs, and various others. This is also the age when students begin to look at dinosaur books and think more about dinosaurs. However when students are watching shows about dinosaurs they are not learning the facts or the history about dinosaurs and it is something that the students should learn about. When children just watch the shows or movies they get misconceptions and may think that what they see is real, when in fact it is not. By teaching students the facts about dinosaurs we are helping our students learn about something they are already interested in and build their knowledge so that each students can feel like a dinosaur expert.
Scope:
This is a grade two optional unit that studies animals that lived a long time ago. This unit give students an understanding of what dinosaurs were, where they lived and how we know they existed. It also connects to the present by getting the students to think about endangered and extinct animals today and what they can do to help.
The students will start out by looking at how the Earth might have looked when the dinosaurs were alive. It will then go on to look at the skeletal structure, reproductions, and comparing and contrasting meat-eating and plant-eating dinosaurs. Next the students learn about fossils and make a model of an imprint fossil to share with the class. In this unit the students will also get to create their own dinosaur, visit dinosaur centers, and go on a big dig. The students will also be able to help decide what they are going to learn about in two of their lessons. I am going to be looking at the students KWL charts to find out what the students want to know during this unit and tie it into my lessons. It is important to show the students that you care about what they want to know as well as what you want them to know.
During this unit I am going to be using many different teaching strategies to keep the class exciting and help all the students learn. I am going to use brain storming, KWL charts, Journals, model building, centers, a simulation, and much more. I am going to keep my lessons interactive and engaging and lots of fun.
Sequence:
Lesson 1:
- Students will think about what the Earth looked like a long time ago through books and discussion.
- Students will think critically about how the earth has changed since the time of the dinosaurs.
Lesson 2:
- Students will learn about two different dinosaurs a meat-eater and a plant-eater
- Students will look at the skeletons then compare and contrast them.
Lesson 3:
- Students will then compare the skeletons they looked at last class with representations of the dinosaur.
- Students will be able to list the similarities and differences
Lesson 4:
- The students will learn about fossils.
- The students will learn what a Palaeontologist is.
- Students will learn that you can find fossils of bones, foot prints, plants, teeth, and various other things
Lesson 5 and 6:
- Students will review what the learned in lesson 5
- Students will create an imprint fossil using various objects
- The next day after the impressions have dried the students will get to guess what object made each impression.
- The students will learn that scientists know that texture the dinosaurs skin was because of the imprint fossil the skin made. Students will also know that we do not know what color dinosaur skin was.
Lesson 7:
- The students will get to create their own dinosaur using the information they have gained in the past lessons
- Students will give their dinosaur a scientific name, what the name means, decide if it is a carnivore or a herbivore, what type of hips it has, how many legs it walks on, and what their favourite thing about it is. The students will then draw a picture of their dinosaur.
Lesson 8 and 9:
- Students will get to participate in centers.
- The centers will be finding information on the computer, digging for fossils, matching the dinosaur to its armour, writing a “what it…” story using the story seeds provided, reading non-fiction books, and solving various dinosaur puzzles and games. Groups will be able to make it to three centers each day.
- After each day of centers the students will have time to reflect in their learning journals.
Grade 2 Dinosaur Objectives
Common Essential Learnings foundational objectives which should be emphasized:
- To use a wide range of possibilities for developing students' knowledge of the major concepts within science.
- To promote both intuitive, imaginative thought and the ability to evaluate ideas, processes, experiences, and objects in meaningful contexts.
- To develop compassionate, empathetic and fair-minded students who can make positive contributions to society, as individuals and as group members.
Science Foundational and Learning Objectives:
- Describe some animals that lived on earth a long time ago
- Describe how the earth might have been different a long time ago.
- Compare the skeletal structures of two or more different dinosaurs.
- Compare the skeletal structure of a dinosaur to a representation of that dinosaur as it might have appeared when it was alive.
- Compare the characteristics of meat-eating and plant-eating dinosaurs.
- Recognize how information about dinosaurs is obtained.
- Explain how information regarding the bones, teeth, eggs, or footprints of dinosaurs have been left behind.
- Build a model to show how one type of fossil is formed.
- Appreciate that animals and plants are endangered today.
- Explain what is meant by an endangered animal.
- Give an example of an animal that has become extinct recently.
- Identify several different types of living things that are endangered today.
- Give some reasons why certain plants or animals have become endangered.
- Suggest some ways in which people can help animals or plants that are endangered.
Knowledge :
Students will know:
- that the Earth was different a long time ago
- how fossils are formed
- what types of fossils can be found
- that a palaeontologist is the scientist that finds dinosaurs
-
Skills/Process:
Students will be able to:
- make a model of a fossil
- create their own dinosaur using information learned in class
- list the characteristics attributed to their dinosaur
Dinosaur Information Sheet
Dinosaur: Any type of reptile that lived millions of years ago. All dinosaurs are extinct now.
Carnivore: meat eater
Herbivore: Plant eater
Extinction: The disappearance of a species of animals or plants
Bipedal: Walked on two legs
Quadrupedal: Walked on All four legs
Paleontologist: A scientist who studies ancient forms of life including dinosaurs
Saurischian: Dinosaurs with hip bones of present day lizards. This entire group had clawed feet. They were both carnivores and herbivores. Some were bipedal and some were quadruped. Ex: Tyrannosaurus Rex and Diplodocus.
Ornithischain: Dinosaurs with hip bones that resembled present day birds. All of these dinosaurs were herbivores. All had hoofed toes and all but one had a beak-like mouth. Some examples are: stegosaurus, triceratops
Mesozoic Era: “Age of the Reptiles” The Mesozoic Era came between the Paleozoic and Cenozoic Era and means “middle time”. It began 225 million years ago and ended 65 million years ago. It separates into three different time periods: the Triassic, the Jurassic, and the Cretaceous. When the Mesozoic Era ended, all the dinosaurs had disappeared from earth.
Sauropod: A type of dinosaur that had a long neck and tail. Included the largest dinosaurs ex: Diplodocus
Fossils: Any part of an animal that has been preserved in rock. Also traces of plants and animals. Ex: bones, teeth, footprints, coprolites, gastroliths, eggs, or skin impressions.
Gastrolith is the stones found in some plant eating dinosaurs stomachs that helped them break down and digest vegetation. Coprolites are the dinosaur droppings.
How Fossils are formed: Fossils of dinosaurs were formed when the dinosaur died the mud covered the dinosaur layer upon layer. Slowly both the dinosaur and the mud turned to stone. In time more rock layers built up. Each layer contains different fossils and that is how scientist can tell what time period each layer is from. Pg. 22-23 Dinosaur Bones by Aliki
Tyrannosaurus Rex:
Geological Time: Mesozoic Era/ Late Cretaceous Period
Hip type: Saurischain ( lizard Hip)
Features: Carnivore, Bipedal
Found in: N. America, Mongolia, India, Japan
Facts: Largest and Last of the meat eating dinosaurs. Razor sharp teeth, huge hind legs, large feet, short arms. Three fingers and three toes on each arm and foot each equipped with long, razor sharp claws. “Tyrant Lizard” Because of its razor sharp claws and teeth.
Length: 50 feet
Stegosaurus:
Geological Time: Mesozoic Era/ Late Jurassic Period
Hip Type: Ornithischian ( Bird Hipped)
Features: Herbivore, Quadruped
Found In: N. America, Europe
Facts: Known as “Plated Lizard” because of its two rows of leaf-shaped, bony plates extending from behind its head to the middle of its tail. Plates may have been used to keep the dinosaur cool. Its long heavy tail had four sharp spikes. Hind legs were longer than its front making its head low to the ground.
Length: 25 feet
Triceratops
Geological Time: Mesozoic Era/ Late Cretaceous Period
Hip Type: Ornithischian (Bird Hipped)
Features: Herbivore, Quadruped
Found In: N. America, Mongolia
Facts: “Three Horned Face”- because of its two short sharp horns over its eyes and one long horn over its nose. Thick legs, front were shorter than the back, and its tail was short and heavy. Its head had a smooth round frill that extended back over its shoulders.
Length: 25 feet
Iguanodon
Geological Time: Mesozoic Era/ Early Cretaceous Period
Hip Type: Bird Hipped
Features: Herbivore, Bipedal
Found in: N. America, S. America, Asia, Australia
Facts: First dinosaur fossil ever found. It walked upright on two legs, each foot had three toes. Each hand had four fingers and one sharp pointy thumb. Its name means “iguana tooth” because it has teeth like the iguana lizard.
Length: 25 feet
Diplodocus:
Geological Time: Mesozoic Era/ Late Jurassic Period
Hip Type: Lizard hipped
Features: Herbivore, quadrapedal
Found In: N. America, Asia, Europe, Africa
Facts: It was the longest dinosaur. It had longer back legs than front legs. It used its long tail as a weapon. Its name means “ double-beamed” because of its unusually shaped vertebrae (shaped like a Y)
Length: 90 feet
Triassic Period:
- No ice at the North and South poles
- 230 millions years ago
- Much warmer and less rain then now. This meant large areas of desert and dry scrubland
- Fewer trees could grow in the Triassic heat
- One big land mass names Pangaea
- Plants were conifers, ginkgoes, palm like cycads, ferns, mosses, and horsetails.
Jurassic Period:
- 200 million years ago
- Climate was cooler than the Triassic
- Plants began to grow in the desert areas
- Main trees were conifers, club mosses, ferns, and horsetails
- Long rainy seasons and short dry seasons.
- It was warmer than it is today
- Pangaea split into two large areas of land
Cretaceous period:
- World became more like it is today
- It started to get colder at the poles and warmer at the equator
- Flowering plants began to grow and trees such as maple, walnut, and oak began to grow. Seasons became more varied ( poles had winter and summer, equator had wet and dry seasons)
- Pangaea broke into the continents we know today.
Paleontologist- A scientist who studies ancient forms of life, including dinosaurs.
Conifer- a tree or shrub that produces seed cones, such as a fir and pine trees
Fern- a non-floweing plant with finely divided leaves called fronds
Ginkgo- a tree that looks like a conifer but sheds leaves in the fall.
Resources:
For the teacher:
Books:
Aliki. (1988) Digging Up Dinosaurs. New York, NY. HarperCollins Publisher.
Birch, Robin. (2002) Meat-Eating Dinosaurs. South Yarra, Australia. Chelsea House Publishers
Children’s Dinosaur Encyclopaedia. (2008). Bath, UK. Parragon Books Ltd.
Culver, Diann. (1993) Dinosaurs. Westminster. CA: Teacher Created Resources, Inc.
Foreman, Michael.(2002) A Trip to Dinosaur Time. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.
Mathews, Rupert. (2007) Dinosaurs Through Time. McRae Books
Matthews, Rupert. (2008) The Great Big Book of Dinosaurs. Laguna Hills, CA: QEB Publishing.
Websites:
Dinosaurs:
http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/web/dinopage.html
Dinosaur Theme Page:
http://www.cln.org/themes/dinosaur.html
Enchanted Learning:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html
Kinder Art
http://www.kinderart.com/crafts/dinoeggs.shtml
Making your own Fossils:
http://www.teach-nology.com/teachers/lesson_plans/science/archaeology/dinosaurs/
Teacher Vision:
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/dinosaurs/teacher-resources/6611.html?detoured=1