Dinosaurs
Dinosaur Short Film
This is a short film that follows little Rexy and his adventure to the volcano. This is a good resource to introduce your class to a topic on dinosaurs because it introduces them to land, sky and sea dinosaurs.
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Main Focus: What is a dinosaur?
In this activity, your KS1 class will be introduced to their topic on dinosaurs and learn some information about them.
They will look at, what makes a dinosaur, discovering dinosaurs and tools used by palaeontologists, diet, carnivores, herbivores and omnivores.
In the experiment, your class will freeze dinosaurs inside balloons. We have created a resource to allow your class to write equipment, order the instructions, make observations and make explanations.
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Main Focus: What is a Fossil?
Today, all that remains of dinosaurs are bones and footprints which have
now turned to rock. These are called
fossils. When dinosaurs came to a lake for a drink, they left behind footprint in the mud. Over time, the mud turned to rock and the footprints became fossils.
In this activity, your class will learn about fossils and look at dinosaur footprints to see if they can decide which dinosaur each print belonged to.
For the experiment, your class will create their very own fossils – AMAZING!
Main Focus: Dinosaur Fossils - Video Clip
This is a useful video clip for your Year 1 / Year 2 class narrated by David Attenborough to explain how fossils are made with a lovely animated video to accompany the information.
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Main Focus: Mary Anning and Fossils
This is a useful resource to complete when exploring dinosaurs with your class.
Your class will learn about Mary Anning and her discoveries. They will then complete the sentences to show their understanding.
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Main Focus: Who am I?
This resource encourages your class to read the information and then match it to the dinosaur.
This is a useful activity for your class to sue the information to make deductions about which dinosaur the clues are referring to.
In this resource your class will learn about velociraptor, ankylosaurus, t-rex, triceratops, brachiosaurus and pterodactyl.
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Main Focus: Volcanoes and Dinosaurs
In this resource, your class will learn the connection between dinosaurs and volcanoes – it’s quite the fiery relationship! Anyway…
Did you know that before the astroid wiped out 75% of the dinosaurs, Earth was going through a big change and this was making it tough for dinosaurs to thrive? Volcanoes are partly responsible for this change. Lots of volcanic activity resulted in lots of lava and gases, which made it a challenge for dinosaurs. However, after the asteroid hit and the Earth quickly cooled, volcanic activity and eruptions actually helped heat the planet up again.
Your class will learn a few facts about dinosaurs, volcanoes, they will label a volcano, learnt he difference between magma and lava, and answer multiple choice questions that are based on what they have read. This resource has been differentiated for KS1 classes.
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Main Focus: Coke and Mentos Experiment
This is a fantastic experiment for KS1 that all children love – the reaction between Mentos and Diet Coke. Your class will learn the science behind it, order the instructions and record the results of different eruptions using either coloured paper or metre sticks to measure.
Diet Coke and Mentos Experiment
The Science
Diet Coke is fizzy because of a gas called carbon dioxide. As the Mentos sink in the Diet Coke bottle, carbon dioxide gathers on the tiny holes in the sweets and then quickly rises to the top. On its way up, the bubbles of gas push the Coke out of the top to make an eruption.
Equipment
2-litre bottle of Diet Coke 1 packet of mentos 1 piece of paper 1 video camera
7 different coloured paper sheets blu-tac
Instructions
First, roll the paper around the packet of mentos and tape it at the side and bottom. Leave the top open. You now have a paper tube.
Next, take out the packet of Mentos and open them. Place each of the Mentos into the paper tube. This makes it easy to pour them into the bottle of Coke at the same time.
Then, stick the pieces of paper to a wall outside using blu-tac, one on top of the other. The paper is used to visually measure the height of the eruption.
After that, place the video camera at a safe distance and record when you are ready to add the Mentos.
Finally, place the Coke bottle in front of the wall with the coloured paper. Tip the paper tube upside down and all the Mentos will fall inside the bottle.
Main Focus: Sauropods and Theropods
In this resource, your class will learn the difference between a sauropod and a theropod. These two classification are quite distinct, so it is useful to study for comparative purposes.
We have differentiated this resource to cater for Year 1 and Year 2 classes with questions at the bottom to check the understanding of your class.
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Main Focus: Balloon Dinosaurs
Balloon Dinosaurs
This is a fun designing and engineering activity, that instructs your class how to create their very own balloon sauropods and theropods. It also makes for a great display when completed. Your children can be creative and design their own legs, necks, arms, tails, claws etc. depending on which they choose.
This also reinforces the previous activity on sauropods and theropods and they can be encourages to use their vocabulary when designing.
Equipment
balloons coloured card
scissors sticky tape
pen
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