Dinosaurs Help to Improve Key Stage 1 and 2 Writing and Reading Skills
Teaching about dinosaurs with Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 can help to give children greater confidence with their reading and writing as well as introducing them to the concept of scientific working. Dinosaurs as a term topic links beautifully into the curriculum and allows teaching professionals to help pupils develop their reading and writing skills. For example, team members at Everything Dinosaur encourage children at their dinosaur workshops to independently research prehistoric animal names and write definitions and explanations about how the animal got that name, here is an example:
Dinosaur Definitions (Writing Exercise)
Maiasaura (pronounced May-ah-saw-ah)
Meaning: “Good Mother Lizard”
Why the Name? “When this dinosaur’s fossils were found the scientists also found fossils of dinosaur nests and babies, so the palaeontologists think that this dinosaur looked after its young” (explanation provided by Mary aged 9).
Dinosaurs Help with Literacy
Encourage the children to write definitions and explanations for dinosaur names. Everything Dinosaur team members are happy to email over fact sheets and other useful teaching materials to assist teachers.
Composition – Writing Thank You Letters
After a dinosaur workshop, we encourage the children to write in thank you letters to our dinosaur expert. The children can send in questions to us and we do our best to respond, providing answers. This is a great way for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 pupils to gain confidence with their writing, vocabulary and sentence construction.
A Typical Thank You Letter from Year Two
Everything Dinosaur team members encourage letter writing.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
Our thanks to Joy and the rest of her classmates for sending in such a super set of thank you letters.
To see more information about Everything Dinosaur’s product range: Learning Resources – Dinosaur Themed Gifts.