Dinosaur Week
Day 1 - Read the Words
This activity is designed to get children to really look at the words. Print off the sheet of dinosaur bones and write the spellings on the bones. Place the sheet in a tray, we used the lid of from the phonics box, and cover it with a thin layer of sand. If you don't have sand, you could use salt or flour. Your child could pretend to be a paleontologist and use the paintbrush to gently brush away to the sand to reveal the dinosaur bones and words.
Dinosaur Bones Download
When they discover a bone, see if they can read the word then write it down in a notebook/on paper. You could see if there are any words they think they can spell without looking so you can spend the week focusing on the ones they need to learn. Save your tray of sand for tomorrow and the dinosaur bones for Day 3.
Day 2 - Look and Copy
Take the tray of sand from yesterday and add some dinosaur eggs. I used plastic eggs that are often in shops like B&M, Poundland and supermarkets in the run up to Easter but the plastic inserts from a Kinder Eggs would work well too. I wrote the spelling on a piece of card and cut it into individual letters then I put the letters inside the egg. I put a different word in each egg. If you only have one egg, you could just fill the egg again after each go.
If you are doing this as an after school activity you could leave a pile of eggs in the dinosaur's nest with a pile of word cards for your child to find when they get home. I used some fern from the garden to make a nest.
Get your child to open each egg in turn and show them the matching word card. See if they can used it to help put the letters in the correct order. Can they spot any digraphs, where two letters are making one sound? This will help them to start thinking about how to spell the word. You could repeat the activity again but this time turn the word card over. Can they rearrange the letters to spell the word without looking at the word card?
Day 3 - Cover and Write
Cut out the bones from the dinosaur dig on day 1. Place one in the sand tray face up. Ask them to use the end of the paintbrush to write the word.
Repeat the activity but this time turn the word so it is face down while they write it. When they have finished, turn the word back over and check if they spelt the word correctly. Celebrate the letters that are correct and check for any mistakes. Have another go if they need to practice the word.
Day 4 - Spell it
Click on the footprints below to download the footprint printable. Read one of the words off the spelling list and ask your child to write it on a dinosaur footprint. Show them the word and check if they have spelt it correctly. Repeat with the rest of the words on the spelling list.
Dinosaur Footprints Download