Dinosaurs: Unit Plan

Dinosaurs: Unit plan
@ Paola Sgaravatto – 2008

DD Pinerolo I Circolo

(after CLIL course at Gloucester 2008)

Approx 6 lessons: Age 8-9 years

Objectives

1 For children to understand:

Places of world: continents, countries
Dinosaurs' life: geological ages, environment
Fossilization: how happens
Parts of an animal body
Types of dinosaurs and classification
Characteristics of different dinosaurs: diet, reproduction, movements,....
Causes of extintion: new hipothesis

2 For children to use: dinosaur vocabulary within a range of contexts and for a range of purposes

Portfolio
Children choose 1-3activities for theirportfolio / Self evaluation
Peer evaluation

Useful books for teachers:

Dinosaurs Atlas - Hinkler Books
Dinosaurs – DK Eyewitness Project Books
Rocks & Minerals - DK Eyewitness Project Books
Encyclopedia Prehistorica – Dinosaurs – Renowned Masters - Sabuda & Reinhart
DK Guide to Dinosaurs
Cross-curricular English Activities – Ed. Scholastic
Dinosaur – Cambridge Readings
Burchietti-Valentini – Effective teaching inn the Primary school” Loescher
Rampone-Calabrese “Cross-Curricular Projects” - Loescher

…......

Other dinosaurs stories:

Dinosaurs roar byPaul Stickland– Ragge Bears Publishing Limited
Santasauros -
How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon? by Jane Yolen
How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? by Jane Yolen
How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? by Jane Yolen
How do dinosaurs play with their friends? by Jane Yolen
How do dinosaurs clean their rooms? by Jane Yolen
Dinotopia by James Gurney
The Magic School Bus in the Time of the Dinosaurs by Joanna Cole
Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker

…......

Internet sites where to found informations:

Lesson/
Activity / Aim / Learning
styles / Cognitive skills / Resources / Outcome
Lesson 1
1MT What don't you know about dinosaurs?
Make a poster with questions (MT and L2)
(What kind of dinosaurs did exist?
When did they live?
Where were their bones found?
What did they eat?
Why did they die?
...... )
Focus on some questions / Start from
student
Tuning in
Brainstorming
Making questions
Discussion
Collecting vocabulary
Learning new chunks
/ Linguistic
Visual
Kinaesthetic
Logical
Scientific / Questioning
Sharing ideas
Comparing and contrasting
/ Wall chart
Felt tips
Coloured pins
/ Children
understand:
1 importance of historical and scientific research
2 fundamental principles of methodology for
historical and scientific research
Lesson/
Activity / Purpose / Learning
styles / Cognitive skills / Resources / Outcome
Lesson 2
1 Make a big map of world (Jigsaw): put the places where dinosaur bones were found
2 Get children in groups and give each group a simple text about places where bones were found. Children have to read and look on the map to find the places
3 One child per groupmoves to another group to give information and explain the text to the group / Introduce world related names (continents, country, climatic zones,...): link with geography
Tuning in
Cooperation / Kinaesthetic
Visual
Manipulative
Logical / Organising
Reading
Listening
Planning
Observing
Selecting
Collaborating
Making connections
Classifying / World maps
Texts
Felt tips / Children understand:
1 how world is
2 how world was
3 where do we live on the Earth
4 where dinosaurs lived on the Earth
5 sharing and explaining information
Lesson/
Activity / Purpose / Learning
styles / Cognitive skills / Resources / Outcome
Lesson 3
1 Identify different kind of dinosaurs and classify them in big groups (carnivorous, herbivorous,..)
2 Individually, choose one dinosaur and draw it copying out of a book
3 Make a puppet with moving legs and head
4 Spell its, generally, long name / Collecting vocabulary about dinosaurs
Classifying
Grouping
Drawing
Designing
Speaking and writing clearly / Scientific
Logical
Visual
Manipulative
Kinaesthetic
Linguistic / Reading
Observing
Researching
Selecting informations
Comparing and contrasting
Classifying
Finding resources
Presenting ideas
Sharing ideas
Speaking
Writing / Wall chart
Pins
String
Books
Research on web/CD roms
Cardboard
Felt tips / Children understand:
1 differences between dinosaurs
2 characteristics that cannot be known (color, voice,...)
3 relationships between dinosaurs and with their different environments and time of life
4 food chains about dinosaurs
Lesson/
Activity / Purpose / Learning
styles / Cognitive skills / Resources / Outcome
Lesson 4
(maybe more than a lesson)
1 All the class discuss about the most important features of these animals: environment and time of life, physical aspect, food, movements,skin, respiration, reproduction, defence, size, similar dinosaurs,...
2 Make an identity card of a chosen dinosaur, looking for information on books or on the Internet or on multimedia encyclopedias
3 Introduce your dinosaur to the classthat has to memorize the features and the differences
4 Stick the identity card on a paper plate and each child plays to guess the name of the dinosaur that the classmate reads / Start from students
Tuning in
Collecting vocabulary about features: nouns, adjectives, actions
Link with Science activities (animals)
Link with Math activities (size and weight)
Learning and practise new chunks
Analysing
Link with science (animals and environment)
Seeing stages of development
Comparing
Understanding
To practise reading, writing, discussing
Listening
Deducing the meaning from the context
Comparing
Selecting / Logical
Linguistic
Manipulative
Visual
Linguistic
Kinaesthetic
Linguistic / Questioning
Organising
Sharing ideas
Listening
Talking
Observing
Asking questions
Selecting informations
Reading
Finding resources
Making connections
Using it
Making choices / Charts on wall charts
Felt tips
Books
Research on web/CD roms
Paper plates / Children understand:
1 more differences between dinosaurs
2 differences between dinosaurs and today's animals
3 how to prepare an essential list of features o animals
4 researching resources
5 time line: contemporaneity or not
Lesson/
Activity / Purpose / Learning
styles / Cognitive skills / Resources / Outcome
Lesson 5
1 Classify in many ways: using informations , try to find some different criteria of classification
2 Make a time-line and put the different dinosaurs on it (only some experts explain to the class) / Start from students
Tuning in
Classifying
Grouping
Cooperation
Put animals on a time line
Link with History activities (time line) / Kinaesthetic
Visual
Manipulative
Logical
Linguistic
Scientific / Observing
Selecting informations
Making connections
Making choices / Wall chart
String
Plastic or wooden hoop / Children understand:
1 classifying
2 organising the time
3 concept of a lot of time away from us
Lesson/
Activity / Purpose / Learning
styles / Cognitive skills / Resources / Outcome
Lesson 6
(maybe more than a lesson)
1 Read and listen to some stories about dinosaurs
2 Manipulative activities (make a...with oral o written instructions)
3 Invent an imaginary dinosaur: draw and describe it (even in groups)
4 Songs on dinosaurs: invent new songs based on well-known tunes
5 Games (even in groups):
make a crossword
look for definitions (draw or write gaps)
make a word-search / Start from students
Tuning in
Listening
Predicting
Understanding instructions
Inventing
Sharing ideas
Memorizing
Link with Art activities (draw and paint)
Inventing
Cooperation
Link with Music activities / Linguistic
Kinaesthetic
Visual
Manipulative
Scientific
Musical
Logical
Visual / Listening
Predicting
Selecting informations
Collaborating
Making decisions and choices
Inventing
Testing
Presenting ideas / Book of stories, even big books
Presentations Power Point with stories
Videos of stories
Cd-roms
Cassettes and tape-player
Audio-Cd and Cd-player
Scissors
Felt tips
Rulers / Children understand:
1 how to deduce
the meaning from the context
2 how to realize products on the base of written instructions or oral
3 how to organize a task
4 memorizing sentences in English
5 finding problems solutions
Lesson/
Activity / Purpose / Learning
styles / Cognitive skills / Resources / Outcome
Lesson 7
1 Make a book about dinosaurs : with oral instructions (you can cut, fold, draw, stick, colour, count, write...); it' possible to make a book with a dinosaur shape
2 Insert what you want about your dinosaurs (look at the information you found or invent a story) / Sequencing
Selecting
Invent
Organising / Kinaesthetic
Visual
Manipulative
Logical
Linguistic
Scientific / Sequencing
Selecting
Invent
Organising
Sharing ideas
Planning
Summarising
Reading
Presenting ideas
Writing
Drawing
Designing
Making decisions and choices / Paper or cardboard
Scissors
Felt tips
Pens and pencils
Magazines with pictures or colours to cut out / Children understand:
1 how to organize a task
2 how to realize products on the base of oral instructions
3 selecting informations
Lesson/
Activity / Purpose / Learning
styles / Cognitive skills / Resources / Outcome
Lesson 8
After discussion and research of information in MT: What would happen if you lived in dinosaurs age? It would.....+MT
1 Draw what would happen
2 Write a story in group in MT
3 Make some posters in group about the different environment (draw, look for pictures on magazines, stick: plant, rocks, water, sky, volcanoes,...) / Start from students
Tuning in
Discussing
Evaluating
Comparing
Using the vocabulary learned during the preceding activities
Connect the learned notions
Collaborating
Cooperation
Imagining
Link with MT activities
Link with Science and Historic activities / Kinaesthetic
Visual
Manipulative
Logical
Linguistic
Scientific / What if?
Sequencing
Selecting
Invent
Organising
Sharing ideas
Planning
Presenting ideas
Making decisions and
choices
Collaborating
Relating
Interpreting / Wall chart
Felt tips
Magazines with pictures or colours to cut out
Books on which to find images of the different environments of life of the dinosaurs / Children understand:
1 characteristics of the environment of life and the climate of the times in which the dinosaurs lived
2 if men and dinosaurs would have been able to live together or not
Lesson/
Activity / Purpose / Learning
styles / Cognitive skills / Resources / Outcome
Lesson 9
Work about a text:
1 Give to the children some (6-7) simple sentences about dinosaurs life or how fossils were made, how Earth evolved....
2 Listen to the teacher that reads and mark in numerical order
3 Draw near the sentences
4 Give a number to each children that comes in a circle when he hears his sentence
5 They walk around repeating their sentence
6 Other games to memorize chunks / Tuning in
Analysing
Listening
Sequencing
Drawing
Memorizing
Pronuncing / Kinaesthetic
Visual
Manipulative
Logical
Linguistic
Scientific / Analysing
Sequencing
Listening
Selecting informations / Paper
Felt tips / Children understand:
1 how to order sentences
2 to carefully listen to the reading to pick up information
Lesson/
Activity / Purpose / Learning
styles / Cognitive skills / Resources / Outcome
Lesson 10
Extintions Theories:
1 Look for informations in MT
2 Discuss in MT
3 Invent a new theory and explain it in English / Start from students
Tuning in
Discussing
Evaluating
Comparing
Using the vocabulary learned during the preceding activities
Connect the learned notions
Collaborating
Imagining / Visual
Logical
Linguistic
Scientific / Evaluating
Imagining
Relating
Making links
Discussing
Imagining consequeces
Analysing
Comparing / Wall chart
Felt tips
Books
Cd-roms
Videos / Children understand:
1 how to evaluate the hypotheses
2 how to build new hypotheses on the base of the learned knowledges