Reading/Writing

Crissy August 6th, 2005

(1) Reporters’ Notebook

• Students will partner read the book The Magic School Bus In the Time of the Dinosaurs and take informational notes in a reporters’ notebook.
• Information to be written in the notebook includes characteristics of each time period of the Mesozoic Era, fossils, vocabulary words, and other general dinosaur information.

Materials/Resources:

• The Magic School Bus In the Time of the Dinosaurs by Joann Cole.

(2) Step Books

• Students will use the information they recorded in their reporters’ notebook to make a step book on how the dinosaurs became fossils.
• Each step will be written and illustrated and the last page can show the five types of fossils.

Materials/Resources:

• The Magic School Bus In the Time of the Dinosaurs by Joann Cole.
• Read! Write! Publish! by Creative Teaching Press.

(3) Time Line Posters

• Separate the students into 3 groups and have each group create a poster on a period of the Mesozoic Era.
• Have each student use the information from their reporters’ notebook to give one fact and write it on the poster.
• Posters can be hung in order to give a visual representation of the time line of the dinosaurs.

Materials/Resources:

• The Magic School Bus In the Time of the Dinosaurs by Joann Cole.

(4) Film Production

• Each student will be responsible for writing a complete sentence or sentences about a pre-chosen topic and design a picture that represents the sentence.
• Sentences will be typed on a computer and attached to the picture.
• The sentences will follow a logical order and made into a movie that will describe the time of the dinosaurs.

Materials/Resources:

• The Magic School Bus In the Time of the Dinosaurs by Joann Cole.

Entry Filed under: Lessons, Dinosaur Activities