Kindergarteners will get to know about a few prehistoric reptiles – their appearance, names, characteristics and food preferences. They will practice recognizing the numbers and letters, chunking and connecting difficult names of dinosaurs from the letters. They will also learn a song entitled ‘10 little dinosaurs’.

Materials:

dinosaurs footprints emblems on colorful sheets with double-side tape on the back, dinosaurs footprints with numbers and letters on colorful sheets, tables with names of dinosaurs, pencils/crayons, boxes filled with sand with names of dinosaurs and picture cards of dinosaurs inside cut into pieces, tambourine, envelopes with dinosaurs on it and the information about them inside, sounds of dinosaurs, picture cards with names of dinosaurs, drum, meat and plant emblems, janissaries, laminated picture cards with dinosaurs skeletons – painted by watercolors, a song entitled ‘10 little dinosaurs’.

Activity description:

* Before the class (for example, during breakfast, secretly from children), teacher places on the carpet the footprints of dinosaurs and 6 boxes with their names, filled with sand with picture cards with dinosaurs inside.

1. ‘Footprints hunter’ – didactic activity – children stand before entering the hall. Teacher gives out the emblems with dinosaur footprints. They stick them on their T-shirts and form groups with the same emblems. They come to the kindergarten room one by one and find their footprints on the carpet. After that, children sit in the groups and place on the carpet footprints with letters and numbers facing up and compose them from the lowest to the highest number and read the password  – the name of a dinosaur. You can give them a sheet with numbers in the correct order, where they will write a name of a dinosaur. Next, each group goes to the boxes on the tables and looks for the box with the name of the footprints. If they need it, teacher helps them. Children find in the sand the parts of picture and compose it.

2. ‘Where is our dinosaur?’ – movement activity – children move in the kindergarten room to the rhythm of a tambourine. When the music stops, teacher shows an envelope with a dinosaur. Children, which composed the same dinosaur in the activity before, run to him/her and take away this envelope. Inform them that they mustn’t open the envelope for the next activity. Repeat this activity 6 times to give out envelopes to all groups.

3. ‘Prehistorical reptiles’ – didactic activity – children sit on the carpet in groups, open the envelopes and take out their contents. Next, they read (if they need it, teacher helps them) information about a dinosaur. After that, teacher invites them inside the circle one by one and they share information with the others. After all presentations, everybody chunks the name of the dinosaurs and repeats them in different ways, e.g. as if they were yawning, quickly, slowly, with surprise, loudly, quietly, with anger, etc.

4. ‘Dinosaur walk’ – movement activity – children move in the kindergarten room and imitate dinosaurs in their imaginary way to the sounds of dinosaurs. Continue it for 1-1,5 minutes.

5. ‘Meeting others prehistoric reptiles’ – didactic activity – teacher places on the carpet the picture cards with other dinosaurs. Children can’t see what is on them. Next, she invites them one by one to expose cards and read the names of dinosaurs. Next everybody chunked them and say in different ways, e.g. as if they were yawning, quickly, slowly, with surprise, loudly, quietly, with anger, etc. When all cards are open, teacher asks children: ‘What else do we know about dinosaurs?’, ‘Do you know other dinosaurs?’, ‘Are you sure that all reptiles from this class are dinosaurs?’ After their answers, sum up the most important information about dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs were land reptiles (such as crocodiles, snakes, and lizards) and were divided into two groups: carnivores (predators) and herbivores. Colloquially, all animals known today are called dinosaurs, but in fact, dinosaurs move only on land. Pterosaurs are prehistoric flying reptiles and plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs are prehistoric water reptiles. The name: ‘dinosaur’ is from Greek and means: ‘scary lizard’, but from the size, not the appearance. The dinosaurs were on the Earth about 135 million years ago, while the oldest representatives of the human species appeared only 2.5 million years ago (so the dinosaurs were on the Earth longer than humans do).

6. ‘Turning into dinosaurs’ – movement activity – children move in the kindergarten room to the rhythm of a tambourine. They turn into dinosaurs to the sounds of drums – they imitate dinosaurs in their imaginary way. Repeat it 5-6 times.

7. ‘Herbivores or carnivores?’ – didactic activity – teacher places on the carpet the picture cards with dinosaurs and emblems with meat and plant. Teacher asks children if they remember which dinosaurs are herbivores and which are carnivores and also if they know how we can tell them apart (the carnivorous dinosaurs have mouths filled with sharp teeth and sharp claws, adapted to tear meat. The herbivorous dinosaurs have mouths filled with flat teeth, which are used to crush plants into a pulp or structure similar to a bird’s beak. They can split speeds or collect grains from the ground with them. They don’t have sharp claws). Next, teacher asks children to choose, call and assign dinosaurs to the correct group: herbivores or carnivores with the justification of the choice.

8. ‘Dangerous or not?’ – movement activity –  children move in the kindergarten room to the rhythm of janissaries. During a break, teacher shows a picture card with a dinosaur and children make dangerous faces – they show teeth, move hands imitating scratching claws, etc. – if the dinosaur on the card is carnivorous. If the dinosaur is herbivorous, they climb on toes, imitate picking leaves from trees, or crouch and imitate collecting seeds. Repeat it 6-8 times.

9. ‘What kind of dinosaur is it?’ – didactic activity – children sit on the carpet in the circle. The teacher shows a picture card with the part, painted with watercolors and says that they have to scratch the watercolor to see the skeleton of the dinosaur and next try to guess what kind of dinosaur it is. After that, she gives out picture cards and asks the children to scratch off the painted part. One by one they try to name dinosaurs. We can place on the carpet pictures of dinosaurs to help them.

10. ‘Attention! Dinosaur!’ – movement activity – children move in the kindergarten room. When teacher says: ‘Attention! Dinosaur!’, they freeze. When they hear ‘The dinosaur is gone’ – they move around the room again. Repeat it 5-6 times.

11. ‘10 little dinosaurs’ – listening to the song – children sit in the circle and listen to the song. Teacher shows the correct gestures to it. The movie with them is available here. Children try to imitate them.

10 Little Dinosaurs

Stegosaurus! (move fingers behind the neck)
1 little, 2 little, 3 little dinosaurs, (show on fingers the right numbers)
4 little, 5 little, 6 little dinosaurs,
7 little, 8 little, 9 little dinosaurs,
10 little dinosaur babies.

Triceratops! (put fists on both sides of the head and move index fingers)
1 little, 2 little, 3 little dinosaurs, (show on fingers the right numbers)
4 little, 5 little, 6 little dinosaurs,
7 little, 8 little, 9 little dinosaurs,
10 little dinosaur babies.

Pterodactyl! (move hands-on sides, imitating flying)
1 little, 2 little, 3 little dinosaurs, (show on fingers the right numbers)
4 little, 5 little, 6 little dinosaurs,
7 little, 8 little, 9 little dinosaurs,
10 little dinosaur babies.

Brontosaurus! (stretch neck high and point fingers at the neck)
1 little, 2 little, 3 little dinosaurs, (show on fingers the right numbers)
4 little, 5 little, 6 little dinosaurs,
7 little, 8 little, 9 little dinosaurs,
10 little dinosaur babies.

Tyrannosaurus Rex! (stretch arms forward, imitating the scratching of three fingers)
1 little, 2 little, 3 little dinosaurs, (show on fingers the right numbers)
4 little, 5 little, 6 little dinosaurs,
7 little, 8 little, 9 little dinosaurs,
10 little dinosaur babies.

12. ‘Little dinosaurs’ – didactic activity – teacher places on the carpet one by one the picture cards with dinosaurs from the song and call them. Next, teacher makes the correct gesture to the right name. Children try to imitate them. Repeat every name and gesture 3 times.

Attachments:

Footprints emblems for the ‘Footprints hunter‘ activity – to print on colored cards

Footprints emblems for the ‘Footprints hunter‘ activity – to print on colored cards

Tables to write the name of dinosaurs for the ‘Footprints hunter’ activity

Picture cards with dinosaurs for the ‘Where is our dinosaur?’activity – to stick on envelopes

Information to envelopes and to read for the activities entitled ‘Where is our dinosaur?’, ‘Prehistoric reptiles’ and ‘Meeting others prehistoric reptiles’

Picture cards for the activities entitled ‘Footprints hunter’, ‘Meeting others prehistoric reptiles’, ‘Herbivores or carnivores?’, ‘Dangerous or not’ and ‘Little dinosaurs’

Emblems for the ‘Herbivores or carnivores?’ activity

Picture cards with dinosaurs skeletons to be laminated and painted over for the ‘What kind of dinosaur is it?’ activity

Pages used:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX-DvqFjVDE – sounds of dinosaurs for the ‘Dinosaur walk’ activity
2. https://supersimple.com/song/ten-little-dinosaurs/ – a song entitled ‘10 little dinosaurs’
3. https://supersimple.com/how-to-teach-super-simple-songs/how-to-teach-ten-little-dinosaurs/ – gesture show for a song entitled  ‘10 little dinosaurs’