Description
What our Dinos A to Z: Parasaurolophus lesson plan includes
Lesson Objectives and Overview: Dinos A to Z: Parasaurolophus 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: PARASAUROLOPHUS LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES
Parasaurolophus
The Dinos A to Z: Parasaurolophus lesson plan contains one content page. The Parasaurolophus (PEAR·uh·soar·ALL·uh·fuss) was a duck-billed dinosaur, a typical trait for dinosaurs in the ornithopod family. Ornithopod comes from two Greek words: ornitho, meaning bird, and pod, meaning foot. We get our word ornithology, or the study of birds, from the same prefix.
But there was something unusual about this dinosaur. What made it distinctive was its unique head crest. The paleontologist who first finds a newly discovered dinosaur typically gets to name it. In this case, William Parks discovered the dino’s fossils in Alberta, Canada, in 1922. He named it Parasaurolophus, meaning “lizard crest.” Only the skull and part of the skeleton were found.
Interesting Features
The crest is interesting to paleontologists for a couple of reasons. The first is that it is hollow! That surprised them because when you look at the crest, it appears horn-like and solid. More surprising is that some of the crests are a slightly different shape. Paleontologists have to be like detectives and use only a few clues to figure something out! They were perplexed about the crest and wondered what it could possibly have been used for.
Some believe that because the crests were hollow, they were used to make sounds and communicate with other Parasaurolophuses. Others thought it helped the dinosaur control its body temperature. Some crests were large and some small. So, another suggestion was that the large crests were from males and the small ones from females. While all great ideas, no one knows for sure.
Parasaurolophuses grew to about 9 meters (30 feet) long. They weighed approximately 5,000 kilograms (11,000 pounds). They were herbivores, munching on the grasses and plants on the ground. Their skin was made up of pebbly scales. Much of the time, Parasaurolophuses walked on all fours, but they could stand on their two legs to reach tree leaves. They probably lived in herds to protect themselves from predators. Living more than 75 million years ago, much about this unusual crested dinosaur is shrouded in mystery.
DINOS A TO Z: PARASAUROLOPHUS LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS
The Dinos A to Z: Parasaurolophus 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.
PARASAUROLOPHUS MASKS ACTIVITY WORKSHEET
For this activity, students will use the materials you provide to make their own parasaurolophus masks. They will follow the steps on the worksheet to complete the assignment.
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.
