Lesson plans and teaching aids for every day in preschool

Children celebrate Dinosaur Day and run a measuring experiment that shows them just how big dinosaurs were. They take part in further math activities — classifying by a chosen feature, sorting by size, recounting and comparing the size of collections — and build a dinosaur out of paper and cartons.

a song entitled ‘Hello Song For Children’, tape measure, string, scissors, picture cards with dinosaurs compared to various things, drum, rattle, picture cards with dinosaurs in various sizes, worksheets entitled ‘From the smallest to the largest’, crayons, blue napkins, grey paper, cartons, tape, watercolors, brushes, tissue paper, colored paper, straws, a song entitled ‘10 little dinosaurs’.

1. ‘Hello Song For Children’ – greeting – children stand in a circle and sing along, imitating the gestures their teacher shows.

2. ‘How big were dinosaurs?’ – math activity – the group measures out the length of dinosaurs from velociraptor to the largest, using a tape measure and string.

3. ‘Small and big dinosaurs’ – movement activity – heavy slow steps on the drum, small tiptoe steps on the rattle.

4. ‘Big, bigger, the biggest’ – math activity – children group the picture cards and order each group by size, then count and compare.

5. ‘Dinoland’ – didactic and movement activity – children move to ‘10 little dinosaurs’ and form groups on the teacher’s instruction during the breaks.

6. ‘From the smallest to the largest’ – worksheet – match the dinosaurs with a line from smallest to largest and color them in.

7. ‘Ichthyosaurs’ – breathing activity with blue napkins — breathe in through the nose above water, blow out through the mouth below it.

8. ‘Big dinosaur’ – artwork – build the skeleton from cartons, form the body in grey paper, paint it and add claws, teeth and eyes.

1. Decide together which dinosaur the group is making.
2. Build the skeleton out of cartons and tape.
3. Form the body over it with grey paper.
4. Paint with watercolors and leave to dry.
5. Add claws from twisted tissue paper, then teeth, eyes and nostrils.

9. ‘Pterosaurs’ – breathing and movement activity with straws — hands up on the in-breath, down on the out-breath.

10. ‘10 little dinosaurs’ – singing with gestures.