Practicum 235: Unit Plan Theme: Dinosaurs Stacy Bilby Subject Area: Dinosaurs Title: Dinosaur Adventures Overall

Objectives: The children will learn many facts about dinosaurs while practicing skills in several learning areas such as Math, Literacy, Art, Fine Motor, Dramatic Play, Science, and etc. Lessons included for 2- week unit plan (will be presented 4 times) Day 1: Paleontologists and Fossils: We will learn about what Paleontologists do, and how we know what dinosaurs looked like and how they behaved. We will learn about, dig for, and make our own fossils. Art Macaroni Dinosaur Skeletons: The children will use different pasta shapes to create dinosaur skeletons. Science - The children will dig for dinosaur fossils in the sand table. They will have paintbrushes to brush the sand off and magnifying glasses to get a closer look at the fossils. They can also compare them to the play dinosaurs and try to figure out which dinosaur the fossil was from. Math - The children will play dinosaur concentration. Dramatic Play I will have a dinosaur prop box set up for the week. It will include aprons, magnifying glasses, fossils, paintbrushes, a dinosaur rug, and play dinosaurs. Small Manipulative and Language Arts Games - Dinosaur stencils, dinosaur floor puzzles (2), dinosaur 3D puzzles, dinosaur lacing cards, dinosaur books Block Area: I will have play dinosaurs in the block center. Music We are the Dinosaurs DVD by the Laurie Berkner Band Group times The children will come to the rug for circle time. I will pass around a dinosaur that has removable skin and talk to the children about how if dinosaurs are extinct, we know what they looked like. I will then take off the skin of the dinosaur to reveal the skeleton and pass it around it again. We will discuss paleontologists and what they do and I will read the book Digging Up Dinosaurs by Aliki. The book talks about fossils at the children in the groups level. This activity would work with

a small or large group of children. If the group were larger, I would have more of the dinosaurs to pass around. We will then go into our music activity. Outdoor Activities I will set up an art easel outside and encourage the children to paint or draw pictures of dinosaurs. I will also at some point during the unit plan take some yarn outside and show the children how long a dinosaur is and measure how many children (laying down) it takes to equal a dinosaur. Day 2: Dinosaur Eggs and Babies: We will learn about dinosaur eggs and babies. Art Give children a large oval shaped piece of paper to sponge paint. Then give them a white piece of paper the same size and shape and encourage them to draw/color a dinosaur baby in the egg. Attach the shell over the other page with a brad so it can be opened to see the baby inside. Science I will add some egg shaped fossils to the sand table. The children will make their own fossils with clay and toy dinosaurs. Math After the egg hunt, we will sort the eggs by color and the dinosaurs by group. We will count how many dinosaurs are in each group. Dramatic Play I will add dinosaur masks to the dinosaur prop box. We will have a dinosaur egg hunt in which children will hunt for Easter eggs filled with small plastic dinosaurs. Small Manipulative and Language Arts Games I will add more puzzles, lacing boards, stringing beads, and Legos. Block Area Dinosaurs in the block center Music - Dino Laid an Egg to the tune of This Old Man Free Play: Get out instruments and play dinosaur music Group Times We will read the book A Day in the Life of a Baby Dinosaur at circle time. I will pass around a piece of poster board to show the size of the smallest and largest known dinosaur eggs. We will talk about how paleontologists have found nests with dinosaur eggs in them. We will play a game with dinosaur eggs. Outdoor Activities We will have a big piece of cardboard outside with different dinosaur footprints on it (actual size) and will paint the kids feet (weather permitting) or trace around their feet to see how many of their feet will fit in it. Day 3: Name that Dinosaur: We will talk about a few different dinosaurs and their differences and chart which ones are our favorites.

Art Encourage the children to draw their favorite dinosaur on construction paper or poster board. Provide a couple of different cereals to glue on for texture if they want to. Provide paints, markers, crayons, etc. Science Add rocks to the sand table and dinosaur books and pictures to the science center. Math Make a chart at group time that shows which dinosaurs are the childrens favorites. It can also show if the children were dinosaurs, would they be a plant or meat eater. We will have eggs available to sort also. Dramatic Play Dinosaur prop box That is all I have related to the theme. I can bring another prop box if needed (Flower shop prop box) Small Manipulative and Language Arts Games Puzzles, Lacing cards, Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Legos Block Area Dinosaurs in block center, doll house and play people beside block center Music - Free Play: We Are the Dinosaurs (The Laurie Berkner Band) Group Time Music: Im a Mean Old Dinosaur to the tune of Im a Little Teapot Group Time I will show the pictures and summarize the books if The Dinosaurs Could Talk: Triceratops, Brontosaurus, and Stegosaurus. We will talk about a few different kinds of dinosaurs and their differences, such as what they ate, their size, etc. We will talk about our favorite dinosaurs and make a chart that tells which one is our favorite. Outdoor activities: Easel and markers, and sidewalk chalk: I will encourage the children to draw their favorite dinosaur. Day 4: How Big are They? We will learn about how big different types of dinosaurs were. Art We will get out a long sheet of butcher paper and invite the children to work together and make a huge dinosaur mural. Materials will include leaves, markers, paints, cereal, moss, and etc. Science Go outside and mark the size of a couple different dinosaurs on the ground with tape. Have the children measure the dinosaur by lying down in a line to see how many of them it takes to make 1 dinosaur. Add some rocks to the sand table. Apatosaurus 24x48 T-Rex 40 46 ft. long, 20 ft. tall, 7 tons

Math Dinosaur Concentration, Tape 20 dinosaur cutouts with numbers on them to the floor. Have the children toss beanbags and try to hit one of them. Have the child say the number they land on. We can also sort dinosaurs from smallest to largest. Dramatic Play Dinosaur Prop Box, Dinosaur masks Small Manipulative and Language Arts Games - I will give the children sheets of paper with dinosaur bones on them to cut out and assemble however they want on another piece of paper. Block Area I will add some different blocks and the small dinosaurs we used in the egg hunt to the block area. Music We will watch the Laurie Berkner Band DVD (with We Are the Dinosaurs) on it. Free Play We will offer different instruments and dinosaur music. Group Time I will read the book How Big Were the Dinosaurs? Gigantic by Patrick OBrien. I will show the children a large toy dinosaur compared to a small toy person. This will work for either size group. Outdoor Activities Measuring dinosaurs/Art Easel and Paints Daily Schedule Play time (45 min. to 1 hour) Clean up Restroom break Snack time Book time Circle time Crafts/papers Dismissal Resources used with children 1. We Are the Dinosaurs DVD by The Laurie Berkner Band 2. Under a Shady Tree CD by The Laurie Berkner Band 3. Digging Up Dinosaurs book by Aliki 4. A Day in the Life of a Baby Dinosaur book by Lee Randall 5. How Big Were the Dinosaurs? Gigantic book by Patrick Obrien

References for Ideas 1. Website: www.123child.com (game ideas) 2. Book: The Complete Resource Book for Preschoolers by Pam Schiller and Kay Hastings (crafts, games, group time ideas) 3. Website: www.preschoolrainbow.org (finger plays) Bulletin Boards Parent Bulletin Board: I will have a parent bulletin board in the hallway outside of the classroom. This board will contain a copy of the newsletter. At the top it will say What Are We Learning? Its Dino Time! It will be broken into sections such as Math, Science, Group Time, and etc. and it will have photos of the children doing activities related to the theme. It will also have samples of some of the things we are doing. I will use dinosaur paper for the background and border. Child Bulletin Board: I plan to use the egg art on the child bulletin board so that it will be an interactive bulletin board. The kids will be able to move the top egg over to see the baby inside.