Year 1 on a field trip to Nanjing Museum of Paleontology

Do you want to know a fantastic and exciting way to end the topic unit on ‘Dinosaur Planet?’ By visiting the Nanjing Museum of Paleontology of course!

With the amazing visual, auditory, sensory, and interactive features on display in the museum, the students demonstrated their understanding and knowledge by consolidating their learning during and after the trip! From a historical aspect the students looked at the information and discussed excitedly when dinosaurs roamed on earth…it was over 200 million years ago! They remembered making their own dinosaur fossils, using salt dough and were in awe when they saw the real fossils, especially the ammonites, the fossilised plants and the huge Ichythisaurus fossil!  It was so lovely to see how quickly they all recognized the dinosaur skeletons and name the dinosaurs the skeletons belonged to. When studying the prehistoric landscape, the students were able to match the different habitats the dinosaurs used to live in, by creating a diorama and they had also created an art and craft volcano with molten lava spilling everywhere.  In the museum, they discovered how volcanoes are made and why they erupted. They were also very interested in learning about the liquid amber that caught many creatures inside it and how this helped the scientists discover the animals that used to roam on earth millions of years ago!

“We really liked the fossils in the museum and know how they are made and why the dinosaurs went extinct. It was because there was a meteor shower!” said Caitlyn, Randall and Jethro.

After the trip, the students worked together in small groups and created a recount of our visit to the Museum of Paleontology by using the photos to sequence the events of the day. When presenting their recount, they used time words to show what they saw first, next, after that, later and finally! Well done Year 1!