Dinosaurs
thedinosaursofearth.blogspot.com
By: Brittney Rusnell
March 5th-9th, 2012
Great Start Readiness Program: 4 years old
South Lyon Early Childhood Center
Table of Contents
Introduction……………………………………………………………..
Curriculum Web………………………………………………………..
Terms and Facts……………………………………………………….
Unit Goals and Objectives……………………………………………
Environment Adaptations…………………………………………….
Pre-Assessment of Unit Outcomes……………………………………
Weekly Chart……………………………………………………………..
Activity Plans……………………………………………………………..
Teacher Resources………………………………………………………
Children’s Books…………………………………………………………..
Family Letter…………………………………………………………………
Post-Assessment/ Evaluation of Student Learning……………………….
Reflection……………………………………………………………………….
Documents
Introduction
About the children-
There are 16 children in the class, nine girls and seven boys. It is a four-year-old Great Start Readiness Program. This program is a grant program that is federally funded. Each child has to have at least two factors that qualify them for admittance into the program. Some of factors that qualify children for this program are low-income, speech-language disabilities, special needs, single parents, teen moms, prematurity, or children who have a incarcerated parent(s). There are many children who are currently in the process of being evaluated for special needs. Parents do not pay a tuition but are required to attend all parent meetings, volunteer one day a month in the classroom, have home visits, and are asked to donate various items to the classroom. There is a lead teacher, assistant teacher and a parent in the classroom at all times.
This group of children tends to have very creative minds. The children enjoy dramatic play, playing in the block area and doing art and sensory projects. Many of the children are very verbal about what is going on in their home life and it is evident that they are exposed to some things that are not developmentally appropriate for them. There has been occasions where the children talk freely about death and I have even had a child talk about murder. One child shared that her daddy was bad and went to jail for addictions. The children are exposed to things that are way beyond their years.
About the unit-
The unit was designed as part of my cooperating teachers theme plans for the school year. I chose the week that she wanted to do a dinosaur theme because I thought it would be a fun topic to teach and I could use many creative activities to teach the children. The children already play with dinosaurs often as a choice during their playtime. The children love to explore with materials and do a lot of hands on activities and I feel that my unit will expose them to such activities. They will get the opportunity to make fossil clay, have a dinosaur detective prop box for dramatic play, go on a field trip to the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History as well as many other activities that will allow them to explore and use their imagination. These children have wild imaginations and have been through a lot in their home life and therefore they tend to act out their understanding of life in their play. I have supplied many activities to allow them to use their imagination and play based on their understanding of life.
Terms and Facts
· Dinosaurs lived on land.
· Part of the reptile and bird family.
· Dinosaurs are not all the same.
o Some eat meat and some eat leaves.
o Some are mean while some are gentle.
o Some have two feet, some walk on four feet.
o Some have spikes.
o Some are large and other are small.
o Some fly.
· A paleontologist is a scientist who studies dinosaurs.
· A fossil is an mark into sand that tells us about dinosaurs
o A fossil can be a skeleton, footprint or bones.
Unit Goals/Outcomes: Michigan Early Learning Standards
Intellectual Development
-Children represent what they understand about the world through actions, objects and words.
-Children gain, organize, and use information in increasingly complex ways.
Social/Emotional Development
-Children show increasingly ability to regulate how they express their emotions.
-Children develop healthy relationships with other children and adults.
Language and Early Literacy Development
-Children begin to develop writing skills to communicate and express themselves effectively for a variety of purposes.
-Children develop abilities to express themselves clearly and communicate ideas to others.
-Children grow in their capacity to use effective listening skills and understand what is said to them.
Creative Development
-Children show how they feel, what they think, and what they are learning through experiences in the visual arts.
-Children show how they feel, what they think, and what they are learning through listening, participating in, and creating instrumental and vocal experiences.
-Children show how they feel, what they think, and what they are learning through dramatic play.
Physical Development and Health
-Children increase their ability to understand and control their bodies and learn that regular physical activity can enhance their overall physical, social, and mental health.
-Children experience growth in gross motor development and use large muscles to improve a variety of gross motor skills in both structured and unstructured settings.
-Children experience growth in fine motor development and use small muscles to improve a variety of fine motor skills in both structured and unstructured settings.
Early Learning in Mathematics
-Children begin to develop skills of comparing and classifying objects, relationships and events in their environment.
-Children begin to develop an understanding of numbers and explore simple mathematical processes using concrete materials.
Early Learning in Science
-Children develop positive attitudes and gain knowledge about science through observation and active play.
Early Learning in the Social Studies
-Children show growth in their understanding of the concept of time and begin to realize that they are a part of history, which includes people, places, events, and stories about the present and the past.
Goals/Outcomes that the children will achieve from this units theme:
· The children will be able to use the word paleontologist in the correct context.
· The children will be able to sort dinosaurs based on being herbivores, carnivores and omnivores.
· The children will be able to match upper and lower case letters of the alphabet.
·
Environmental Adaptations:
Adaptations for the theme of the unit:
In order for the environment to attribute to the unit I will need to add and change some of the things in the classroom. Some of the things I will add include dinosaur stuffed animals to the animal area. I will change out the prop box to put the dinosaur detectives prop box out for the children to explore for the week.
Adaptations for some of the domains covered by the unit:
I will also add some sensory activities and manipulatives around the room to help children build skills across the domains. In the sand table I will have sand, bones, magnifying glasses, sand sifters, brushes , plastic tweezers, small dinosaurs and bowls. The children will be able to develop their sensory skills using the sand table items while also gaining knowledge on finding fossils and dinosaur bones. In the art area I will have a collage box that the children can explore freely. This box will contain dinosaur stickers, die cut letter D, die cut shapes, noodles, eye ball stickers, leaves, and many other collage objects. After doing the dinosaur name activity, I will leave the weekly reader out for the children to reference the dinosaur pictures with their names.
Pre-Assessment:
Children / Questions AskedWhat do dinosaurs look like? / What do dinosaurs eat? / What is a paleontologist?
1 / “Giant” / Shrugged shoulders / “I don’t know”
2 / “Green and red” / “Meat” / “A penguin”
3 / “Red, blue and yellow” / “umm….grass” / “I don’t know”
4 / “Sharp teeth and legs” / “grass and leafs” / “A dinosaur”
5 / “Pink and purple” / “Leafs”” / “Um…Its got a
fever”
6 / “ I don’t know” / “Plants” / No answer
w / “Their big” / “Uh..I don’t know” / “I don’t know”
8 / “A cow” / “Dinosaurs eat carrots” / “A bear”
9 / “Green dots” / Leaves and grass…and dog meat too” / “A tiger”
10 / “Green and eats meat” / “Meat” / “A reptile”
11 / “They have sharp teeth” / “Uhh..people” / “It’s a shark”
12 / “Black and brown” / “Leaves” / “It’s a alien”
13 / A big green monster who eats people” / “Us (people)” / “I don’t know…a monster”
14 / “A T-rex has sharp teeth” / “People” / “I don’t know”
15 / “A t-rex is yellow and green” / “Plants” / “A dinosaur”
16 / “Green with three toes” / “Bones” / “A walrus”
Pre-Assessment Continued:
For the pre-assessment of the children’s knowledge and skills, I asked each child the same three questions. Each child was pulled to answer the questions during their work time. I did not want to pull them out of the classroom because I wanted my pre-assessment to seem like a regular conversation where the children felt comfortable talking to me while they worked.
Before asking the questions, I warned the children that during their work time I would be talking to them about dinosaurs. I explained that we would be taking a field trip to see a dinosaur exhibit at a museum next week and that I wanted to know what they already knew about dinosaurs. I explained that I would be writing some notes while we talked.
During the pre-assessment, I witnessed some of the children using body language to answer the questions. Some of the children verbally said, “I don’t know” to answer while others simply shrugged their shoulders. Some verbal cues of uncertainty were used such as: Umm and uhh.
Some children could tell me what dinosaurs look like and eat while other children had no idea. The children demonstrated different levels of understanding about dinosaurs. None of the children knew what a paleontologist was and therefore I will be sure to talk and teach a lot about what a paleontologist is and give them opportunities to act like a paleontologist.
Given this information I will include a few small and large group discussions about what a paleontologist is and what they do pertaining to dinosaurs. I will explain that they are a type of detective and scientist who search for dinosaur bones to learn about dinosaurs that lived long ago. I will use the dinosaurs prop box and also allow the children to clean sand off of bones in the sand table using brushes, bowls and magnifying glasses. I will also be sure to use many pictures of dinosaurs during this unit so that the children can get a better understanding of what the authentic colors of a dinosaur are as opposed to them thinking that dinosaurs are pink and purple like they said in the pre-assessment.
Classroom Activities
Date: 3/5/12-3/8/12
Theme: Dinosaurs
Circle / Plan / Work / Recall / Story / Small GroupMonday / *Field Trip
Tuesday / Dino Herds
*Big Room / Tweeze Noodles (Bones) & Count / Bones in sand table / String noodles (bones) onto lace / Bones, Bones, By: Byron Barton / Coffee grounds fossil clay
Wednesday / Dinosaur fingerplay / Match dino eggs, upper & lower case letters / Dino Detectives Prop Box / Match pictures of dinosaurs / Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs, By: Byron Barton / Dinosaur Collage
Thursday / What do dinosaurs eat?
*Big Room / Walk on a dinos back (balance beam) / Playdoh with noodles & dinosaurs / Dinosaur food: Sausage & Celery; Which type of dino are you? / If Dinosaurs came back By Bernard Most / Class Book: If Dinosaurs Came Back
*Big Room: Tuesday & Thursday 12:35-1:00
*Please note that on Monday March 5th 2012 you will need to have your child at school by 9:00a.m. We will be leaving at 9:15 to go to our field trip to the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History.
Activity Plan 1
Dinosaur Collage
Brief Description:
The children will use various art supplies to create their own dinosaur collage.
Rationale:
The children are encouraged to create their own art work based on their own creative imagination. To encourage this, this lesson will allow the children to use art materials to build their own art piece without direction of a teacher. This activity aligns to the Michigan Early Learning Standard that children show how they feel, what they think, and what they are learning through experiences in the visual arts.
Domain(s):
· Art
Goals:
The children will use given art materials that include dinosaur die cuts, shapes, as well as many other materials to construct their own dinosaur land.
Objectives:
· The children will be able to choose from a variety of art supplies to create their own version of a dinosaur picture, i.e. a dinosaur, a dinosaur home/land, etc.
· The children will be able to understand that not all dinosaurs look alike and that they can create their own dinosaur from the art materials.
Materials:
· Construction paper
· Dinosaur die cuts
· Shape die cuts/pieces
· Pom pom balls
· Markers/crayons
· Stickers
· Scissors
· Tootpicks
· Sand
· Glue
· Collage art materials