Description
What our Dinos A to Z: Jaxartosaurus lesson plan includes
Lesson Objectives and Overview: Dinos A to Z: Jaxartosaurus is a high-interest reading comprehension lesson plan. As such, students will practice various close reading and comprehension skills. In addition, they will learn some basic information about these interesting prehistoric animals. This lesson is for students in 2nd grade, 3rd grade, and 4th grade.
DINOS A TO Z: JAXARTOSAURUS LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES
Jaxartosaurus
The Dinos A to Z: Jaxartosaurus lesson plan contains one content page. The Jaxartosaurus (jack·SAR·tuh·SORE·russ) lived about 90 million years ago. Paleontologists found fossil remains in Kazakhstan, a country in Central Asia. We don’t know much about the dinosaur because they only uncovered part of its skull and jaw.
With little evidence to go on, scientists hypothesize what the dinosaur may have been like. The name Jaxartosaurus means “Jaxartes river lizard.” Its name comes from the Jaxartes River. Evidence from where the fossil remains were found suggests that these dinosaurs lived near rivers. By dinosaur size, Jaxartosauruses were small. They were about 9 meters long (29.5 feet) from the tip of their head to the end of their tail. And they were nearly 3 meters (10 feet) tall. They probably weighed around 3 tons or 6,000 pounds.
The shape of the skull and jaw of the Jaxartosaurus indicate it was in the family of duck-billed dinosaurs. One of its more interesting features was that it may have been covered in scales. Think of the modern lizard, and you will have a picture of what this dino’s covering was like. It also had a unique crest on its head. Scientists speculate that Jaxartosauruses used the crest to communicate or as a mating signal.
Diet of the Dino
The Jaxartosaurus had a lot of flat-shaped teeth. Its snout was home to hundreds of teeth used for grinding plants. That means it was an herbivore. It probably dined on the lower fibrous vegetation on the ground. Coastal areas and rivers would have provided the dinosaurs several leafy plant meal options. Scientists believe that herds of Jaxartosauruses roamed together, which provided protection from predators.
Not much else is known about the Jaxartosaurus. Much of what scientists believe is based on comparing the dinosaur with others in its family. Scientists then use what they know about similar dinosaurs to create a picture of the Jaxartosaurus. As more discoveries are made, scientists continue to learn about the Jaxartosaurus and how it lived millions of years ago.
DINOS A TO Z: JAXARTOSAURUS LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS
The Dinos A to Z: Jaxartosaurus lesson plan includes two worksheets: an activity worksheet and a practice worksheet. Each one will help students solidify their grasp of the material they learned throughout the lesson.
GUESS THE ANIMAL ACTIVITY WORKSHEET
Students will get to play a fun guessing game for this activity. In pairs, students will take turns picking animals, specifically one feature of an animal, and guessing/drawing the animal the other partner chose. You could have students play as many rounds of this fun game as you like.
REVIEW PRACTICE WORKSHEET
The practice worksheet requires students to answer a series of 5 questions. These questions all relate to the content pages, so students will need to refer to them for the answers.
