Dinosaurs Are a Popular Topic With Young

Dinosaurs are a popular topic with young students of both genders and all ethnicities. Because they are extinct, dinosaurs generally take on a mythic character among children of this age; furthermore, because they are physically enormous and dominant, most students find them fascinating as almost fantasy creatures. Therefore, creating a thematic unit on dinosaurs for first and second graders was fun and rewarding. With the plethora of material available on the subject, tailoring a unit for my students also involved a thorough review of films, books, websites, and CD ROMs. I relied heavily on multimedia materials, as dinosaurs' main impact for students is visual and aural. I employed Internet and CD Rom sources in addition to picture books and a brief cartoon film. These visual tools proved engaging for most students, who would otherwise become bored with pure fact and data. I based the success of the lesson on the reactions of the students, most of whom laughed several times during the unit. Moreover, attention spans did not wane as much as they normally do.

The children also enjoyed trying to correctly pronounce some of the trickier dinosaur names. This evolved into a game in itself, as I provided a list of the lengthy scientific nomenclature for many of the giant lizards. However, I demanded no memorization of the names except for a few basic ones like Tyrannosaurus and Pterodactyl. The former I referred to as "T-Rex" for ease. I designed a simple and informal quiz for the end of the unit to ascertain information retention. The quiz was in pencil-and-paper form but also used some colored pencils or markers. I asked students to identify two different dinosaurs (Tyrannosaurus Rex and Pterodactyl) and asked students to color their pictures. I also requested they list some possible sources of foods for the creatures. They were to draw lines matching names with habitat and eating habits.