EMERGENT
CURRICULUM:
DINOSAURS
By: Holly Mullan
THE CHILDREN IN OUR CLASSROOM HAVE SHOWED A LARGE
INTEREST IN DINOSAURS. THEY BROUGHT MANY QUESTIONS
AND STATEMENTS TO OUR ATTENTION. THE INTEREST THAT
THEY CONTINUED TO SHOW MOTIVATED ME TO PLAN
CURRICULUM FOR DINOSAURS. THIS CURRICULUM HELPED
ANSWER SOME OF THEIR QUESTIONS AND ALLOWED THEM
THE CHILDREN TO SHARE THEIR KNOWLEDGE.
Special Visit
The first plan for our dinosaur curriculum included
a special visit from our local librarian, Ms. Jessi.
Ms. Jessi came into our classroom and shared
some books about dinosaurs with the children. A
few of the books were fictional, while others were
non-fictional. All of the books included names and
pictures of different types of dinosaurs and facts
and information about different dinosaurs. The
children really enjoyed this visit. They shared their
knowledge about dinosaurs with Ms. Jessi and
learned new information as well. We focused on
literacy, communication, listening and
understanding skills through this activity.
The children asked Ms. Jessi many questions. I
recorded several questions that the children asked.
Some of their questions and statements included:
• “Oh my gosh! What is that big dinosaur? That is
the biggest dinosaur ever!”
• “Are dinosaurs bigger than my dad? Because my
dad is really big, like the biggest dad ever.”
• “I know that dinosaurs ate meat or plants. What
does that one eat?”
• “Why aren’t there dinosaurs still? What happened
to them?”
• “That dinosaur looks like a really big bird.”
• “How did dinosaurs find food?”
All of the children asked really great questions
and made statements that showed that they did
have knowledge that we didn’t realize that they
had.
Dinosaur Tracks
After having Ms. Jessi come in to share the books
about dinosaurs and hearing the children’s
questions about different dinosaurs and their sizes, I
had an idea for our next activity. I decided to do
some research about different types of dinosaurs. I
printed off some posters that showed different
dinosaurs and some facts about each one. After
reading the information, I found the estimated size
of different dinosaur’s foot prints. I took some time
to cut out different dinosaur’s foot prints based on
the real size and shape of each of them. I presented
the posters and the foot prints to the children so that
they could compare them to themselves and their
every day items. This helped give them a clearer
image of how big dinosaurs actually were. We
focused a lot on mathematical, science, and physical
development skills throughout this activity.
When we began the activity, I asked the children to tell me
how big they thought dinosaurs were. Some of the
responses were:
• “Well I think they were smaller than me”
• “I’m pretty sure that they were as big as Bear Buddies”
• “I don’t know how big they were. Maybe big like my
dad”
After asking them to share their predictions, I brought out
the footprints and told the children which dinosaur they
belonged to. Their responses to the size of the footprints
were very fun to hear. Some of the comments included:
• “Holy cow! That footprint is bigger than me!”
• “Wow! I didn’t know that their foot was THAT big!”
• “Ms. Holly, it is almost as big as you”
The children then continued to compare different items to
the size. They all took their shoes off and placed them in a
line to count how many of their feet it took to be as big as
the dinosaur’s foot.
Dinosaur Bone Excavation
After seeing how much fun the children had with the footprint activity, I thought that I would take it a
step further. I decided to make dinosaur bones out of salt dough. After making the bones, I brought
them into work and placed them into the sensory table. I asked the children if they knew what a
person who digs for dinosaur bones is called. None of the children knew the name of that person, so
I explained that they are called paleontologists. A few of the children responded with:
• “I didn’t know they were called that”
• “That’s what I wanna be when I grow up”
• “That is so cool! I wish I could do that”
After telling them what they are called, I explained to the children that I had dinosaur bones in the
sensory table and had some tools in there to help them explore and clean the bones. While
excavating the bones, the children had many comments about the activity. Some of the comments
included:
• “Look at all these bones. Is this all of the bones of a dinosaur?”
• “We have to be very careful when we pick them up. Otherwise they will break. Then we won’t have
all the bones.”
• “I think this is a tooth. See? It is really sharp and big like a dinosaur tooth.”
• “If we put all of these bones together, we could probably build the whole dinosaur!”
• “Let’s work together. We will get some more bones out of the sand and you guys put the bones in
the right places.”
Throughout this process, we worked on sensory, communication, exploration, discovery, and problem
solving, scientific thinking, and large and small motor development skills.
Dinosaur Bone Excavation, continued…
Throughout all of these activities, the children
learned new information, practiced many
wonderful skills, and shared their knowledge of
Conclusion dinosaurs with the children and adults in their
lives. They loved learning about dinosaurs and
were thoroughly interested in each activity. It
was a great experience to have the children
learn about a topic that they were interested in.
