Joan Jones

Solomon School

Third Grade - Room 107

October 23, 2000

Dinosaur Time line:

To help my students get a better understanding of dinosaur time we compared the age of Earth to one 24-hour day. In this plan, Earth is formed at midnight. The earliest living organisms appear at about 8:00 A.M. The age of dinosaurs starts at about 11:00 P.M. and ends at about 11:30 P.M. The first humans appear at about 11:59 P.M. Students were surprised to know that, according to this plan, all modern time happened in less than a minute. (Integrated Theme Units, Scholastic, 1993)

Geology:

Goals: Students will investigate, describe and compare properties of earth’s basic materials (water, air, rock), and the natural processes that change the earth’s surface. Students will identify and describe the three main rock families and how they are related. Students will describe changes on the earth’s surface over time.

Literature: Magic School Bus Inside the Earth, by Joanna Cole, Fossils Tell of Long Ago, by Aliki

Materials:

rock kits

hand magnifiers

worksheets Inside the Earth, The Earth

apple

Vocabulary:

crust, mantle

outer core, inner core

minerals

sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks

sandstone, shale, limestone, fossils

Procedures: Read aloud The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth. After reading use a picture of a cross section of the earth. Explain that the earth is made up of different layers, crust, mantle, outer core, and inner core. Students will color and label worksheets Inside Our Earth and The Earth.

Activity: Use an apple as a very simple example of the earth’s layers. The skin of the apple = the earth’s crust, white inside of the apple = the mantle, and the apple core = the earth’s inner core. (hard boiled egg or peach would also work)

Review: The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth taking a longer time to explain the three different types of rock, igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary. Explain that sedimentary comes from a word that means “to settle”, metamorphic comes from a word that means “to change”, and igneous comes from a word that means “fire.” The heat inside the earth is like fire. It can melt rocks.

Students should learn that igneous rocks are the oldest rocks. Metamorphic rocks are formed from one kind of rock to another kind by heat, time, and pressure. Sedimentary rock is composed of sediment - an accumulation of bits of matter. Most of the sedimentary material comes from the earth’s crust. Over time, fragments of rock are broken off by the action of living organisms, flowing water, ice, and wind-blown sand. Also that some sedimentary rocks are made of the remains of living things. example Limestone is composed of the exoskeletons of corals and the shells of other sea animals. Coal is made of the remains of plants that were buried under mud or sand before they could decompose. Over millions of years, pressure and heat turned them to stone.

Activity 1: Students will use the rock kits and hand magnifiers at this point. Children will work in groups of five. They will have time to observe and sort rocks. As students study the rocks, explain that one reason rocks differ from each other is because they are made of different minerals.

Activity 2: Students will begin making their own rock collection.

Activity 3: Peanut Butter and Jelly Geology (AIMS Education Foundation Overhead and Underfoot)

Materials:

FOR EACH PAIR OF STUDENTS

one slice of white bread

one slice of whole wheat bread

one slice of dark rye bread

two tablespoons of jelly

two tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter mixed with raisins

two paper plates

plastic knife

napkins

AIMS Peanut Butter and Jelly Geology worksheet

Procedure: Students will listen to a story while building their sandwiches predicting which ingredient will make the next layer. When all sandwiches are finished start a question and answer period. Explain that when geologists study layers of rock, they rarely find them flat and horizontal. Often they will see layers that are bent or broken. Discuss that sometimes earth’s crust moves up or down. Cut sandwich in half and move one half up or down. Hold the two halves up in front of you. You can see this movement because of the different layers of the sandwich. This is called a vertical fault. Another kind of fault is the lateral fault. Slide the two parts of the sandwich past each other on the same level.

Students will complete the Peanut Butter and Jelly Geology worksheet labeling sandwich layers with corresponding layers of rock. Students will illustrate a vertical and lateral fault.

Fossils

Goal: Students will gain knowledge of how fossils were formed and where fossils might be found.

Literature: Fossils Tell of Long Ago by Aliki

Materials:

clay

empty student milk carton

plaster

shell or item to make fossil print

Fossils Tell of Long Ago Reflection sheet

Procedure: Read aloud Fossils Tell of Long Ago stopping for discussion throughout the story. Page 10 and 11 discuss how after a long time the surface of the earth changed. The sea that was once there dried out. Page 16 an 17 discuss how dinosaur track become fossil tracks. Sand filled the dinosaur’s footprints in the mud. The sand hardened into a rock called sandstone.

Fossils can also be found in the frozen ground of the Arctic. Sometimes insects can be preserved in amber. Discuss how fossils tell us about the past. Page 22 students study the two pictures and discuss how dinosaurs can be found in desert areas today like the Sahara, but millions of years ago there once were forests. Every time someone finds a fossil, we learn more about life on earth long ago.

Activity: Students will make their own fossil prints. Use a small student milk carton. Press clay in the bottom of the carton. Students will then press their item that they want to make the print of in the clay. Then pour plaster into the milk carton. Let harden for about an hour. Peel away the milk carton and clay. Students will have their very own fossil prints. Students will answer reflection questions.

Room 107’s Questions:

1. Have you found a nest on this trip? If so how do you put a cast around it?

2. How do you decide to name a dinosaur?

3. How deep do you have to dig to get a dinosaur bone?

4. Were you able to find a more complete Nigersaurus like you hoped?

5. Can you describe a typical day? Do you have much time left at the end of the day to have fun? How long are you out in the field each day?

6. Do you get to a point in the trip when you really miss your families and just want to go home or is your work just too exciting to really get homesick?

7. Parent Question: Mrs. Tharwani wants to know How did you feel when you found your first dinosaur fossil?