Dinosaurs and other Prehistoric Creatures

The girls continue to learn about the dinosaurs and other creatures from the past. We have a poster of dinosaurs from Gondwana, the Southern Hemisphere, on one side, and dinosaurs from Laurasia, the Northern Hemisphere on the other side. The poster also shows maps of Gondwana and Laurasia and where those lands migrated to today.

We also had fun playing some games on the BBCs prehistoric life page. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/

We played the game Who Dung It? where we tried to guess which creature created each coprolite (fossilized droppings). This of course had us laughing....and to think there are scientists who study this for a living. I know a lot of useful information can be gleaned from coprolites, but still.... You can try it, too. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/games/who_dung_it/game/

We also tried Sea Monsters Adventure game http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/seamonsters/game/index.html

And we took the Caveman Challenge at http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/games/cavemen/challenge/index.html Here we had to answer questions about our early ancestors.

We also read profiles of hominids here http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/human/species/

We also tried to put together some skeletons here http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/games/skeleton_jigsaw/skeletal_jigsaws/index.shtml

And tried to survive as an Allosaurus in the Big Al Game here http://www.bbc.co.uk/dinosaurs/bigalgame/index.html

On the Animal Planet Channel we watched a show called Land of Lost Monsters which was really interesting. http://animal.discovery.com/convergence/lostmonsters/lostmonsters.html Their website has short videos and slideshows on the topic.

We are also going to watch some of the documentary Becoming Human which I watched in my anthropology class. You can watch it free online here http://www.becominghuman.org/

They also have a game called Building Bodies here http://www.becominghuman.org/lesson_plan/buildingbodies

And the Chromosome Connection here http://www.becominghuman.org/lesson_plan/chromosome

We went to the library and checked out 42 items. Two were movies, four were chapter books Georgia picked out, and the rest are about dinosaurs, extinct animals, and other prehistoric themes. Oh wait, I think there are a couple about.......horses!