Early years practitioners will be in no doubt about the enthusiasm of young children for all things prehistoric. Anything that captures the interest and imagination in this way makes a motivational and inspiring context to develop children's confidence as well as a range of knowledge, skills and understandings.
When it comes to learning to read, children need a high level of engagement, they need to see what reading is good for, how it can bring pleasure in various ways - through emotional engagement, through satisfying curiosity and a 'need to know.' With careful planning and effective use of resources, a dinosaur topic can enhance children's development in all aspects of the reading process, including their growing awareness of the relationship between letters and sounds.
Complete collection
* Display your collection of dinosaur books, both fiction and non-fiction, where children can access them easily and independently of adults.
* Plan your read-aloud programme carefully to include dinosaur stories, poems and non-fiction texts.
* Add to the collection texts that the children bring from home. This may include comics, magazines, DVDs, games and guidebooks from museums and theme parks.
* Observe the children with these materials. Some who may not usually engage with reading material will be inspired to use this collection.
* Where relevant, incorporate books and other reading material into the continuous provision, including the outdoors, so that the children can behave like readers in a wide variety of contexts.
Words and letters
Dinosaur names intrigue and fascinate children, and offer practitioners the perfect opportunity to look at the 'smaller shapes' of reading - words and letters. It is a good idea to buy at least one dinosaur alphabet book (see below).
* Use an alphabet book as part of your daily routines. For example, turn the pages and talk to the children about which dinosaurs begin with the same letters as their own names and those of their family and friends.
* Use the books in small group work too. 'Who can find a dinosaur that begins with "b"?' and so on.
* Create your own dinosaur alphabet book with the children. The internet is an excellent source of both images and information. Collect a dinosaur name for as many letters of the alphabet as possible, along with images of each dinosaur. Print the images, add the names and arrange them in alphabetical order. Don't worry about any empty pages - the children will soon learn those letters because there are no dinosaur names for them! There is a huge selection of names and pictures at: www.search4dinosaurs.com.
* You might also import the downloaded dinosaur images, with names, into a PowerPoint presentation, and show the alphabet either in small groups around a computer screen, or in a large group around an interactive whiteboard.
* You could also make a set of alphabet cards to be used on a washing line, indoors or outside.
* Make a set of dinosaur name cards to use as a context for discussion about letters and words. Choose about ten dinosaur names - those with which the children are most familiar. Type them up and copy them in various fonts. You may wish to make one set of cards that incorporates both dinosaur name and image.
* Use the cards for sorting activities, snap games and in conjunction with an alphabet book.
* Sets of moveable letters can be combined to use with the cards so that the children can build the dinosaur names for themselves. 'Which name has the most letters in it?' 'Which dinosaur has the shortest name?'
* Finally, think about clapping out the names of the dinosaurs, so that the children's developing understanding of syllabic knowledge can be developed.
Ask if any of the children have names that have the same number of syllables as a dinosaur.
Alphabet books
* Dinosaur A-Z (Priddy Books)
* The Dinosaur Alphabet book written by Jerry Pallotta and illustrated by Ralph Masiello (Charlesbridge Publishing)
* Dinosaur Alphabet by Harry S Robins (Frog Ltd)
