Dinosaur Homeschool Unit

This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® , Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Pop Secret, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #Pop4LandB4time http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV

 School bells are ringing everywhere, summer is upon us!

Technically, Jemma wrapped up her PreK year at the very end of May, but since we’re excitedly anticipating her first full year of homeschool next year, we have kept the ball rolling with some fun unit studies lately. Both Jemma and Max love dinosaurs so it only seemed natural to take that interest and dig a little deeper.

I’m excited to share some of the hands-on learning activities we incorporated into our study as well as how we chose to celebrate the conclusion of our unit … it involves one of the best movies of all time and a fantastic snack :)

It probably goes without saying, but books are a huge part of homeschool life. We own a fair amount of dinosaur books and planned a trip to the library to explore some new ones too. Jemma loves reading to Max and in turn, he loves listening to her and asking questions. Together they make quite the pair when diving in to new  topics. With this unit, I even learned some new words. There is nothing like putting phonics to work and growing one’s vocabulary than when reading about dinosaurs!

This dinosaur unit prompted us to tie together science, history, math, art, and handwriting. For seat work, I made a simple worksheet (you can download it for free here) so Jemma and Max could practice following directions, tracing letters, and creating a drawing. We visited the flower pots on the front porch with mini dinos and discussed habitat, herbivores, and carnivores while staging a scene for Daddy to find when he came home. We also discussed measurement and scale thanks to one of our books which talked about dinosaur’s heights in comparison to humans. To put it in action we used our unifix cubes to measure each of our mini dinos; not 100% accurate, but still a way to practice matching colors, measuring, estimating, counting, and documenting outcomes.

To conclude our dinosaur homeschool unit I told the kids I had a pretty awesome surprise. Throughout our morning of schoolwork they kept guessing what the surprise might be … they couldn’t wait and honestly, I couldn’t either!

When our work was done, I told them I’d debut the surprise as soon as we were cleaned up. Man, I love having a carrot like that to dangle! They did a speed clean and shrieked with delight when I told them that to celebrate their hard work and impeccable memories when it came to dinosaur facts we were going to watch a surprise movie while snacking on popcorn! But, of course, it wasn’t just any movie, it was a dinosaur movie – The Land Before Time – and it wasn’t just any popcorn, it was my #1 favorite, Pop Secret Homestyle!

Needless to say, our dinosaur unit study finale was a hit! 

Whether you’re homeschooling and want to plan your own post-unit study celebration or just a Land Before Time enthusiast, head to Walmart to grab The Land Before Time: The Complete Collection DVD today,  6/14 (while supplies last)! The collection includes 14 films full of Little Foot and his friend’s adventures — so much fun! And so many memories! I remember watching these movies with my sisters growing up and as you can see, I even found our vintage Little Foot and Spike toys! While you’re at Walmart, grab some popcorn too. Nothing makes watching a classic movie more special than enjoying it with a bowl full of yummy popcorn!