Dinosaur Unit

Mar 11

We started our dinosaur unit study after the introduction of planets, earth, and landforms. It seemed a perfect transition to talk about the prehistoric atmosphere and dinosaurs are my son's favorite animals right now. These amazing giants once roamed our planet Earth.

To begin our Dinosaur unit, we first visited a museum to see the dinosaur bones replica. This got him fascinated to learn more about the dinosaur. I like to add concepts my son is working on and add a dinosaur twist to those activities.

Practical Life

A practical life curriculum is a series of simple activities such as tong transfer, scooping, cutting, pouring, and more. These activities promote concentration, coordination, order, and independence. When I plan my activities for this curriculum based on the theme we are studying, I observe the skills my son is working on. Since my son is 2.5 years old, he is working on tong transfer and cutting activities. So, the activities I planned for our dinosaur unit are based on his needs.

Dino Theme Cutting Practice from Dinosaur Cutting Bundle

Sensorial

The sensorial curriculum focuses on the exploration of all senses. These activities are made to refine each of our senses. Typically, activities with different textures are perfect for toddlers. Dinosaur texture identification and sorting by rough and smooth is a perfect activity for toddlers. Sensorial is also a preparation for the mathematical mind; so, the concepts of the large, medium and small sorting with Dinosaurs are a great way to introduce some pre-math work

Language Arts

Children are in a sensitive period of language from birth to age 6. That means this is the time when we want to introduce new vocabulary and many languages. Children are also in the sensitive period to big words, so the bigger the word the more fascinated they are to say it. Montessori language curriculum is all about introducing nomenclature in primary (3-6) classrooms.

Our Dinosaur theme language lessons included Three Part Cards of Dinosaurs, Parts of the Triceratops, and Sequencing Cards.

Read the Key. Available in Dinosaur Theme Printable Bundle Visit our Shop

Math

The concept of math for toddlers and early childhood children is to keep it simple and concrete. We do not want to introduce too many concepts together. For toddlers and young three's, we are working on the concept of one-to-one correspondence. We want to give children as much opportunity to work on these concepts because this numeral to quantity relationship is crucial in developing a mathematical mind.

Thus, concepts of measuring dinosaurs with Legos, ten frames, shapes, are a great way to incorporate the dinosaur theme in this curriculum area.

Dinosaur Printable Available now in our Shop

Cosmic

The cosmic curriculum includes biology, history, zoology, botany, geography, and more. Dinosaurs are part of the cosmic curriculum, so all the activities we incorporate on our shelves are related to the cosmic curriculum. One of my favorite Montessori Cosmic activities to do with a dinosaur is sorting dinosaurs by land, air, and water. This is a great activity for little children to learn the concepts of land, air, and water.