Dinosaur Unit study

There are several different educational approaches (classical style, full curriculums, etc). While each has its own benefits nothing that we've tried seemed to be the fit for our family. This year we're trying something new to us: Unit studies. Unit studies appealed to me for many reasons:

- Hands-on learning

-Literature based (we love books)

-A number of core subjects can be taught using one core topic and resources

-Unit studies can be geared toward the Charlotte Mason method and living books...more on that later ;)

I tend to use resources that I have readily available along with FREE material that I find on line (Pinterest is great). We also use A LOT of books and spend a good amount of time simply reading.

Some of the resources that I'm going to post are not my own creations but those of other dedicated homeschool moms that have lent their knowledge, time, and resources to those other homeschooling parents around them.... I'm trying to do the same.

Below is the resource I use to create our Unit Studies. It is simple and to the point!

Here is what my planning page looked like ( please excuse my chicken scratch):

This is a great way to write down every thought and then organize and adjust. Our unit studies are planned in two weeks intervals. I feel that it allows the appropriate amount of time to study many subtopics and fully cover our main topic whiles till holding my children's attention. With our science, we approach topics from a creationist view. With this study of dinosaurs, it was actually very enlightening to reveal the discrepancies that the evolutionary theory poises.

Here is our two week run-down. Feel free to use our two-week plan and add in where your child's interests may be!

Week 1:

Monday

- Dino poster timeline

-We discussed the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic Era. There is a lot of great information on the internet! We discussed what each of these eras were, what dinosaurs lived during this time. I used a poster that we already had to teach them. For art the kids created their own timeline while listening to the Jurassic Park soundtrack on youtube! The boys worked on their poster the rest of the week.

I also was able to find FREE vocabulary cards that we went over daily. I used cardstock!

Tuesday

-Paleontology vocab cards

-we continued our discussion on the Mesozoic era (Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods). We read about the plants and dinos from each period. I used Smithsonian DINOSAUR! by John Woodward. Again, just a word of caution, many dinosaur books discuss evolution as fact rather then just theory. You will have to adjust the vocabulary and discussion accordingly.

Wednesday

-Paleontology vocab cards and copy work using our science vocab (copy work is great way to practice focusing, letter formation, and dictation).

-We discussed plate tectonics, convection currents and moving land masses in relation to fossil discoveries on different continents. I tossed in some geography as went over the 7 continents and the theory of Pangea. We discussed the flood of Noah and how it changed Earth. We also did an experiment depicting convection currents as follows:

Items:

- Stove-safe pot with water ( make sure its not too full but just enough that the sponges float).

-2-4 sponges cut in different shapes to depict continents (they don't have to be perfect).

-stove

1.Put the pot of water on the stove

2. Arrange sponges so that they're touching. Again they don't have to be perfectly put together.

2. Set dial to high heat

3. As the pan heats up the convection currents will separate and move the sponges away from each other.

Along with experiment we discussed this image:

Below is the Pangea cut out we used.

Thursday

-We discussed the different dinosaur anatomy according to their diets.

-Vocabulary such as carnivore,omnivore, herbivore.

- I made a slideshow of different dinosaurs and the kids had to guess their diets based physical characteristics. We made a game of it

Friday

-Allowed time for them to look through all their dinosaur books. We had open discussions based on where their interests and reviewed the material for the week.

Week 2

Monday

-We discussed dinosaur taxonomy and the different categories they belong to

*bird-hipped and lizard-hipped

*Theropods- Carnivores, such as T-rex

*Sauropods- Long-necked dinosaurs like diplodocus

*Marginocaphelians- "boneheaded" dinos, horned dinos,

*Thyreophorans- Stegosaurus, ankylosaurs

While names and vocab are intimidating they can be easily accommodating to different age groups. The boys worked on classifying their dinosaurs, dividing them into two groups: lizard-hipped and bird-hipped. I used these FREE cards:

Here's our poster.

If you have younger children you can have them separate dinosaur toys and the cards into like group.

Tuesday

-Vocabulary review with paleontology cards

-Triceratops foot-print activity ( 12-12 sheets of paper, construction paper, pencil for tracing)

The kids were amazed at how big a Triceratops footprint was!!!

We traced and cut out the shape of their feet to find out how many it took to fill up a print!

Wednesday

-we watched Fossils of the Gobi desert ( watch before hand to consider the appropriateness). The kids enjoyed learning and seeing the group of paleontologist under-earth a Oviraptor skeleton.

Thursday

-We had great discussion on misinformation and scientific assumptions that most educational avenues teach as fact (evolutionary theory, the assumption of new dinosaur species relying on a single bone as evidence, the misrepresentation of dinosaur models based on an artist interpretation). Couple of great books to go along with this include The Dinosaurs Mystery And The Bible by Paul S. Taylor and Dinosaurs By Design by Duane T Gish, Ph.D. Did you know the Bible describes prehistoric-type creatures in

Job 40 & 41, and Psalm 104.

Friday

**Fridays are usually reserved for our bigger outside projects so I adjust our school day accordingly for plenty of outside time**

- I wanted to show the kids how they actually dig up and get fossils ready for transport. We began our science by watching Paleontology 101on youtube.

It was definitely interesting to see the entire process from excavation," jacketing", and transportation.

But our BIG project for the end of our two week-study was digging up and moving our own dino bones!

A few days prior I went out and bought some larger dog bones (cow femur etc) from one of our local farm stores. I buried them on our property, making our own excavation site.

I put together some paint brushes, scrub brushes, and small shovels.

The kids careful dog up their bones and we covered them with a layer of wet paper towels before we "jacketed" them.

The actual "jacketing" process uses burlap and plaster of Paris. In our activity we opted for cheesecloth (available at most grocery stores) and a runny mix of flour and water.

We ended our Science class with a closer look at fossils. We have a good collection going on but if you don't you can fossil kits online for a decent price!