Children will get to know hypotheses of the extinction of dinosaurs and words: paleontology and paleontologist. They will change into paleontologists – they will look for and clean from the sand ‘dinosaurs bones’ and they will make skeletons out of them.

Materials:

a song entitled ‘Hello!’, ringos/sashes, blocks/ gymnastic bags, picture cards with a paleontologist and his/her tools, a nursery rhyme entitled ‘Romp, stomp, chomp’, sack, boxes with sand and buried pasta, shovels, strainers, loupes, brushes, tambourine, different kinds of pasta, glue sticks, A4 sheets/ sheets with skeletons of dinosaurs, dinosaurs figurines/ pictures cards with dinosaurs, a song entitled ‘Dinosaur Hokey-Pokey’.

Activity description:

1. ‘Hello!’ – greeting children with the song – children sit in a circle with their teacher. Teacher turns on the song and shows the correct movements. The group tries to imitate them.

Hello, hello, hello, how are you? (wave to each other)
Hello, hello, hello, how are you? (wave to each other)

I’m good. (show one thumb)
I’m great! (show two thumbs)
I’m wonderful! (raise thumbs up)
I’m good. (show one thumb)
I’m great! (show two thumbs)
I’m wonderful! (raise thumbs up)

Hello, hello, hello, how are you? (wave to each other)
Hello, hello, hello, how are you? (wave to each other)

I’m tired. (wipe forehead with a hand)
I’m hungry. (massage the belly)
I’m not so good. (wave index finger)

I’m tired. (wipe forehead with a hand)
I’m hungry. (massage the belly)
I’m not so good. (wave index finger)

2. ‘Why did the dinosaurs become extinct? – introduction to the hypothesis of the extinction of dinosaurs – teacher asks children: ‘Where are dinosaurs now?’, ‘Why did they go extinct?’. After their answers, teacher talks about that:

65 million years ago dinosaurs disappeared from our planet. Scientists are still trying to establish the reasons for this. There are many theories about this, but we don’t know which is true. Some scientists think that there were powerful volcanic eruptions it released a huge cloud of ashes and smoke with the lava. It would completely block the sun and without it, there wouldn’t grow plants – food of herbivorous dinosaurs. Also, it could cause the freezing of animals. The others think that the Earth was surrounded by space dust from some star explosion. There is also the theory that a shower of comets hit the Earth or a meteorite crashed. It could cause fires, smoke and dust clouds and climate change. It is possible that dinosaurs couldn’t stand rapid temperature changes. They weren’t adapted to high and often temperature fluctuations. There were long periods of severe winters and hot summers, so dinosaurs could run out of food. Some scientists claim that dinosaurs are poisoned with new plants with poisons. There were deadly to them. The extinction of herbivores could lead to the starvation of carnivores that fed them.

3. ‘Dinosaurs crossing the river’ – movement activity – teacher places in the preschool room ringos/sashes – one about 20 centimeters from the other, in an irregular line. He/she puts a block/bean bag to every second ringo/sash. Children – ‘dinosaurs’ – line up on a ‘train’ on one side of the room in front of the first ringo/sash. Their task is to go ‘across the river’ from one side of the preschool room to the other, but only on the ringos without the block. Continue this activity until all the children take part in it.

4. ‘We are paleontologists’ – research activity – teacher places on the carpet the picture card with a paleontologist. Teacher says that he/she is a scientist and explores the history of life on the Earth. He/she digs up and cleans up various specimens. Next, teacher informs that they will become paleontologists soon. Teacher divides children into several groups, e.g. by countdown and asks them to go to the tables. There are boxes filled with sand, with buried pasta and tools for paleontologists – shovels, strainers, loupes, brushes. Children make palaeontological excavations. They look for, observe and clean up their finds with tools. After a short movement activity, they will try to reconstruct dinosaur skeletons out of finds.

5. ‘Skeletons’ – movement activity – children move in the preschool room to the rhythm of a tambourine. During a break, they freeze. They take the position of a reconstruction of a dinosaur in a museum. Repeat it 5-6 times.

6. ‘Dinosaur skeleton’ – artwork – teacher tells children how to do the artwork (smear the dinosaur skeleton with a glue stick and compose various pasta to fill all the skeleton). Next, teacher asks children to go to the tables, where they can find art supplies for the artwork. After the work, they must clean up, sit in a circle on the carpet and present their works, naming dinosaurs from their skeletons.

7. ‘What did Dino hide?’- movement and perceptive activity – teacher places on the carpet dinosaur figurines/picture cards with dinosaurs. Children stand in the circle, hold their hands and walk around the circle, saying the following nursery rhyme:

Romping, stomping,chomp chomp chomping
Towering ten feet high or more
Romping, stomping,chomp chomp chomping
T-rex gives a great big: ROAR!

After that, they squat, close their eyes and lean their head on their knees. Teacher puts into the sack a picture card/two picture cards. Finally, children have to guess what is hidden.

8. ‘Dinosaur Hokey-Pokey’ – learning the song – children sit in a circle with their teacher. They repeat after her the lyrics of the song and try to sing it.

9. ‘Dinosaur Hokey-Pokey’ – singing the song – teacher makes the correct gestures while listening to the song. Children imitate them and try to sing the song.

Attachments:

Picture cards for the ‘Paleontologist’ artwork

Dinosaurs skeletons for the ‘Dinosaur skeleton’ artwork

Picture cards for the ‘What did Dino hide?’ artwork

Pages used:

1. https://supersimple.com/song/hello/ – a song entitled ‘Hello!’
2. https://love-and-lollipops.blogspot.com/2014/07/fun-with-dinosaurs-dinosaur-fossil.html – an idea of an artwork entitled ‘Dinosaur skeleton’
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26LGKmtnwQw – show the gesture and the similar song entitled ‘Dinosaur Hokey-Pokey’