It has been a very exciting week in Year 1 as we launched our new topic ‘Do you think he saurus?’ We learnt about the job that Palentologists do and how fossils are formed. We looked at a map of the world and found where some of the major fossil sights have been. Some children shared fossils that they had found like a shark’s tooth.
First we got to handle some real fossils and dinosaur bones. We discoved an Iguanadon spine and hip bone. A woolly mammoth tooth. And a selection of ammonites.
We were told about a lady called Mary Anning, who lived near here in Lyme Regis and found many fossils on her daily walks at the beach. She took them home to be cut in half and one side polished. Then she sold them on the beach to tourists. We had a look at some polished ammonites, they were very pretty and the patterns were interesting to look at.
There was a very interesting rock which our teachers got to hold. It was fossilised Dinosaur POO! Luckily it didn’t smell anymore!
The best part of our day was going to the Science Dome. It was very dark inside! In the dome they showed us what the earth looked like 65 million years ago when dinosuars lived. We learnt how all life started in the water before coming on to land. We saw lots of different types of dinosaurs and had to name different dinosaurs. We also learnt about herbivores, carnivores and omnivores.
We were then shown how a meteorite hit the earth and killed many of the dinosaurs. After the meteorite there was an impact winter (Ice Age) which killed the remaining dinosaurs. To finish our time in the dome we got to go on a rollercoaster to explore what the world looked like during the ice age. It was a lot of fun.
On our launch day we also got to make our own dinosaur fossils using clay and also an ammonite.
After learning about the special features of aStegasuarus and what they were used for we also tried to make our own Stegasaurus using a paper plate. We had to include plates, spikes on the tail, a head with a beak and short legs at the front and longer legs at the back.
