This year we decided to follow The Good and the Beautiful’s idea of teaching history linearly….so of course, I had to add my own prehistory unit to include dinosaurs! Take a journey with us through time as we explore prehistoric history to the present day.

Activities:

Fossil Fun!

We did two fossil activities. One was made out of air-dry clay, and one was a little less permanent. 😉

Air-Dry Clay Fossils:

We were lucky enough to get this activity in a Koala Crate from KiwiCo (not sponsored). These boxes add easy activities to our homeschool unit studies. I save the boxes we receive and work them in as we make our way through the year.

Fossil Sugar Cookies:

Because the best lessons are the ones you can eat!

Pro-tip for roll-out cookies: Place the dough in the refrigerator for an hour before rolling out cooking and use powdered sugar (instead of flour) on your tools and surface to keep the dough from sticking.

Frozen in Time!

This was BY FAR my kids’ favorite activity…and it is super simple to put together. Stick some dinosaurs in balloons, fill the balloons with water, and remove the balloon when frozen. Give your kids some tools (and eye protection) and let them have at it!

Give kiddos some salt to bring science into your lesson! Have them make predictions & observations on the effects of salt on ice.

Art

This fun blow art was a good follow-up activity to our discussion on volcanoes. I would suggest using a thinner paint, like watercolors, when you try it at home. We work with what we have. 😉

Puppet Play:

Puppets are a great way to have your student retell stories (or create their own!) An activity that covers two subjects at once!

I found this cute printable from Paging Super Mom but there are a ton of puppet examples on Pinterest. This particular printable came with 4 different dinosaurs to choose from. Color, cut, and add it to a lunch bag to make your very own dinosaur puppet.

Printables:

There are SO MANY resources out there that it makes choosing what to use particularly difficult. If you are interested in doing a dino-study of your own, just know you really don’t have to purchase anything because there are so many ways to do it with what is around you! I did decide to purchase a few things, but only if I felt that they would make an impact in our lessons. Read on to see what we did for our dino-study.

Math

Practice with Word Problems:

This game had addition practice (with doubles) as well as dinosaur word problems challenge cards! Word problems are still a bit tricky for us, but these cards serve as a fun (and free) resource to get us started!

Measuring Dinosaurs:

Measurement activities are a fun way to bring math into your study of animals. It is perfect for studying dinosaurs because it gives students a reference point for just how much the dinosaurs varied in size.

This beautiful printable is from FiddlesticksKids. This printable gives littles the opportunity to measure dinosaurs to scale. I have to say, I love the watercolor look of this printable and it really is a piece of art that you can bring into your homeschool. (Print on watercolor paper if you want it to look like an original!)

Dinosaur themed ruler work anyone? Or maybe you want to just stick to the units? I actually found this free printable after I had purchased the dinosaur measurement activity above. Get this freebie from Teacher’s Breathing Space.

Paleontologist Count by 10s Printable Puzzle:

Because counting by 10 is waaaaaay more fun when there is a dinosaur skeleton involved!

Dinosaur Pattern Blocks:

Free from Home Ed Printables, these pattern block mats are a fun way to review shapes. Challenge your older kids to make their own pattern block dinosaurs!

Dinosaur Clip Cards:

A quick activity that students can work on alone, clip cards offer a busy momma a moment or two between lessons.

Get this printable here.

Another great (and free) printable resource from Every Star is Different. Students can work on counting, addition, multiplication, and division with their clip cards.

ELA

Dinosaur CVC Mats:

Continuing our work on CVC words, this is a fun activity for your little to find all the ways you can make different words by changing the first letter. The printable comes with a few different mats and lots of dinosaur eggs. 🙂

Spot the Difference – 

The blog 3Dinosaurs has a plethora of dinosaur downloads for free such as their dinosaur ABC find and trace activities, sight word puzzles and cards, reading charts, math mats and more.

Itsy Bitsy Fun is another sight that has some great dino finds. With free Alphabet Packs, tracing and coloring pages, and even dinosaur masks!

Science – History – Geography

Map Match-up:

What better way to learn the different dinosaurs around the world than with a huge floor map puzzle and some color-coded dinosaur cards?! These dinosaur cards have the name of each continent the dinosaur remains were found in the Montessori colors. This makes it so even the smallest paleontologist can take part in this sorting activity!

Dinosaur Infomation Cards:

Information cards are a great resource for older students. Have them test their knowledge or just leave them out for students to look over throughout the day.

Tie in your dinosaur measurement activity with information cards that show what your dinosaur may have looked like when it was alive, what its skeleton looks like today and the real measurements of each dinosaur that can be found on display.

Learn about the people who made history with the paleontologist information cards.

Find both (free) sets of information cards from Every Star is Different in their Dinosaurs Theme Printable Packs here.

Lapbook:

Lap books are a great way to put all of what you have learned together. They can be individualized to your students and offer a way to wrap things up into a presentable package.

Fun to look at, something students will want to hold onto (unlike the everyday worksheet), and perfect for portfolios, lap books are going to be my go-to for all of our themed units to come.

Gameschooling:

Dinosaur Escape:

Though this game does not teach any history or science, it is a fun way to work on memory training and socialization skills with students. This kind of game is also a great way to get younger students excited about the topic of study, helping them to relate to the character that is the great dinosaur. I would recommend this game for children ages 3-6.

I hope this gave you a few ideas as you go on your own journey back in time…to the time of the dinosaurs.

Happy Learning

<3 aer