Dinosaur Lesson Plan for Preschool

Preschool students love learning about dinosaurs. This dinosaur lesson plan is geared towards preschool aged children and can be used for individuals, small groups, and an entire class.

Dinosaur Literacy

Dino Names: At the beginning of each day, give each child a dinosaur name such as Jane-osaurus and John-osaurus Rex. Put their new dino names on a nametag with a small dinosaur sticker on it. Call them by their names regularly to help accustom their ears to the sounds of dinosaur names.

Dinosaur Handwriting: Dinosaur handwriting practice pages are available at First-School Preschool Activities and Crafts in both Standard Block and D'nealian. http://www.first-school.ws/theme/animals/cp_dinosarus_alphabet.htm

Dinosaur Art

Dinosaur Mural: Draw a large dinosaur on a piece of butcher paper. Instruct the kids to cut out pictures of people, animals, and houses from magazines to glue to the bottom of the mural and airplanes and birds to paste in the sky. Emphasize how big the dinosaurs were.

Dinosaur Science

Dinosaur Egg Hunt: Explain that dinosaurs are reptiles and like all reptiles, they lay eggs. Reinforce the concept by having a dinosaur egg hunt. Fill some plastic Easter eggs with toy dinosaurs or dinosaur stickers and hide them outside. Tell your preschool class that some mommy dinosaurs left their eggs outside and every child needs to find two eggs.

Dinosaur Fossils: Explain that a lot of what we know about what dinosaurs look comes from fossils of the dinosaurs. Give each child a silhouette of a dinosaur and let them be paleontologists and glue "bones" inside the shape. The bones can be pretzel rods and pretzel twists that your preschoolers can break up to make the shape they need. They can use peanut butter or cream cheese as glue then eat up their dinosaurs like a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Dinosaur Math

Dinosaur Counting: Read How do Dinosaurs Count to Ten by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague.

More Dinosaurs!: Go over the concepts of more and less by separating toy dinosaurs into two groups. Let the children count the dinosaurs in each group and say whether the groups have more or less dinosaurs.

Dinosaur Movement and Games

The Dinosaur Stomp: Give each child two empty Kleenex boxes to put on their feet for dinosaur feet. Let them stomp and roar like a dinosaur while you play jungle music.

Fossil Dig: Bury sections of PVC pipe (available at hardware stores) in the sand for kids to dig up during their free time.