Exploring Dinosaurs

Become a paleontologist as we discover how we know dinosaurs existed, how to tell the difference between dinosaurs and reptiles, and how to determine what adaptations these strange and interesting animals had in order to meet their needs.

Teacher Guide

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Ohio’s Learning Standards 

Grade 1

Life Science – Basic Needs of Living Things 

• Living things have basic needs, which are met by obtaining materials from the physical environment.
• Living things can survive only in environments that meet their needs. 

English Language Arts – Comprehension and Collaboration 

• Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented in various media and other formats (e.g., orally). 

Math – Understanding Place Values 

• Understand that the two digits of a two-digit number represent amounts of tens and ones. Understand the following as special cases: 10 can be thought of as a bundle of ten ones—called a “ten”: the numbers from 11 to 19 are composed of a ten and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, or nine ones; and the numbers 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 refer to one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, or nine tens (and 0 ones). 

Grade 2

Life Science – Interactions Within Habitats 

• Living things cause changes on Earth.
• Some kinds of individuals that once lived on Earth have completely disappeared although they were something like others that are alive today 

Math – Number and Operations in Base Ten 

• Add and subtract within 1,000, using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction; record the strategy with a written numerical method (drawings and, when appropriate, equations) and explain the reasoning used. 

English Language Arts – Comprehension and Collaboration 

• Retell or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information presented in various media and other formats (e.g., orally). 

Grade 3

Life Science – Behavior, Growth, and Changes       

• Plants and animals have life cycles that are part of their adaptations for survival in their natural environments.
• Organisms’ physical and behavioral traits affect their ability to survive and reproduce.
• Differences in inherited traits give some individuals an advantage in surviving and/or reproducing. 

Math – Numbers and Operations in Base Ten 

• Fluently add and subtract within 1,000 using strategies and algorithms based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction. 

English Language Arts – Comprehension and Collaboration 

• Ask and answer questions about information from a speaker, offering appropriate elaboration and detail. 

Grade 4

Life Science – Earth’s Living History 

• Suitable habitats depend upon a combination of biotic and abiotic factors
• Changes in an organism’s environment are sometimes beneficial to its survival and sometimes harmful.
• Fossils can be compared to one another and to present-day organisms according to their similarities and differences. 

Math – Operations and Algebraic Thinking 

• Solve multistep word problems posed with whole numbers and having whole number answers using the four operations. 

English Language Arts – Comprehension and Collaboration 

• Identify the reasons and evidence a speaker provides to support particular points. 

English Language Arts – Craft and Structure 

• Compare and contrast a firsthand and secondhand account of the same event or topic; describe the differences in perspective and the information provided.