How Big Were the Dinosaurs?

Overview

After reading the story summary that compares the sizes of different dinosaurs to many familiar objects, children research a favorite dinosaur and use these facts to make a dinosaur trading card. Following a categorizing activity that focuses on dinosaur characteristics, children visit a dinosaur Web site. At the site they can assemble a fossilized skeleton, hear what dinosaurs may have sounded like, and check out the latest dinosaur finds.

Objectives

Compare the different sizes of dinosaurs to other familiar objects.
Compare the characteristics of different dinosaurs.

Materials

Computer and modem
Web-browsing software
Printer
How Big Were the Dinosaurs? Activity worksheet (one copy for each child)
Simple reference books on dinosaurs
Crayons or markers

Steps

Have children read the story summary. Talk about the characteristics of the different dinosaurs mentioned in the summary. What clues do these characteristics give about the ways these dinosaurs lived? Discuss how scientists figure out the lengths of different dinosaurs. Do children think it is useful to compare the size of dinosaurs to familiar things? Encourage them to explain their responses.
Distribute the How Big Were the Dinosaurs? Activity worksheet. Read the directions to children. Make available simple research materials as well as printouts of the Dinosaur Info Sheets found at Zoom Dinosaurs at http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/.
Have children complete their trading card using the information they have gathered. Encourage small groups of five or six children to get together to share and compare their cards. Allow time for some open-ended sorting of cards. Challenge them to categorize their cards in as many ways as possible�size, food, or special physical characteristics are just a few possibilities.

Home Connection

Children and their families can use homemade clay to make dinosaur models. They can also download patterns for some easy-to-assemble paper dinosaurs from Download-A-Dinosaur at http://www.rain.org/~philfear/download-a-dinosaur.html.

EXTENSION

One of the best dinosaur Web sites is Fossil Zone at http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/dinos/dinos.html. There children can listen to recordings of scientists' approximations of dinosaur sounds and assemble a dinosaur skeleton, as well as learn about the most recent dinosaur finds. Once children have explored Fossil Zone, have them write a short e-mail message to a classmate, sharing their opinion of the site.

PRODUCT LINKS

Take your children on an Internet Field Trip to find out more about Earth's past. Visit Houghton Mifflin Science Discovery Works and learn about dinosaurs and other changes over time.