Dinosaur Themed Games Can Help Children Learn Through Creative Play

Dinosaur Games can help Children Learn about Science

Dinosaurs and children seem to go together rather well. Many children become fascinated by these amazing prehistoric creatures and soon get to grips with their complicated Latin names. Some children, young girls as well as boys, obsess on them and rapidly learn many facts and figures related to their favourite prehistoric creatures. The subject of dinosaurs and certain events associated with them such as the mass extinction event can help teachers and teaching assistants to develop imaginative and creative dinosaur themed exercises that can be used in classroom situations to help underpin key teaching concepts.

When developing a teaching strategy, the emphasis these days is to move away from traditional didactic learning techniques and adopt a less formal approach. Didactic teaching still has its place, of that there is no doubt, after all, formal instruction was the basis of teaching for many earlier generations. Formal instruction, whereby the tutor does the majority of the talking and the method of delivery is based around instructional activities is still appropriate. However, there has been a trend amongst teaching bodies and educational organisations to move towards discovery learning. Discovery learning, also sometimes referred to as "inquiry learning", particularly in the United States, helps young learners to grasp the fundamental principles of a particular subject or module within the national curriculum. The objective behind discovery learning is to enable the learner to develop their knowledge through investigation and problem solving. Additionally, by "doing" the student is more likely to remember and recall information.

When young children read books about dinosaurs, or when they play dinosaur themed games they are involving themselves in self-discovery. A child that can talk about dinosaurs using the long names and complex words associated with the science of palaeontology is developing self-esteem and self-actualisation. Parents, teachers and guardians too, are rewarded, they see their charges growing in intellectual potency, the proud father puffs out his chest as his daughter describes the difference between a Styracosaurus and a Triceratops, for example.

Using dinosaurs to theme lessons can lead to creative, imaginative play. It will help them develop reasoning and problem solving skills that can be used in other analytical situations. For example, we came across the dice based, dinosaur themed game "Jurassic Wars" and one of the concepts that this game teaches is that not all dinosaurs lived at the same time. By playing the game with a child, an adult such as their tutor can introduce concepts such as deep time and encourage young students to grasp the fundamental principles of geology and chronology - key scientific aspects that will help them understand other aspects of the national Curriculum.

Card games and in fact may help to recall the memory

The use of the card in this game based cube constructed, deserves a special analysis. In the game there are three types of playing cards. First there are the cards that the same dinosaur, twenty in all the same to those who eat meat (known as theropods) and herbivores that have been divided mainly ornithischians Sauropodomorphs and function. The second set of cards, the cards timelinewhen drawn in the course of game play determine the geological period in which the dice based combats are played out. Finally, there are a serious of combat based cards that enable players to consider tactical ploys in order to give them an advantage in a period of game play.

Jurassic Wars is targeted at children from ages 8 to adult, but we have played this game with children as young as six, using it as an aid to bridge the gap between moving from Key Stage 1 principles towards Key Stage 2 in the national teaching curriculum of the United Kingdom.

By playing with these card based games, young learners can develop skills of reasoning and problem solving through the creative and tactical game play. Problem solving skills and the realising of consequences can help form links that can be used in other analytical situations whether science or maths based teaching or indeed in other parts of the teaching syllabus. We have noticed that many children gain confidence in bring their skills, the functions of the cube-based in terms of probability and luck, the game will also help ensure that each player a chance to win some of the dinosaurs battles.

Improvements in the recall of fact and memory

There have been numerous studies for the effects of memory card-based games for the students' confidence in their ability to help remember and to assess and improve their memories were real. Through a game likeJurassic Wars, children are helping to train their memories. An improvement in memory will have a beneficial impact on knowledge retention and understanding, helping young learners to forge links between key concepts in unrelated curriculum areas. There is plenty of published evidence and information to suggest that creative play and self-discovery aids the student's ability to recall data. Children readily assimilate the information on the cards in their own heads and start to make their own links between the sources of information.

Game playing using dinosaur facts and figures can help children grasp a number of fundamental national curriculum concepts. Discovery learning often involves role-playing and such dice based games can lead onto other teaching activities such as discussion and brainstorming to explore key concepts and outcomes.

Encouraging Writing Skills in Preschool Boys Through Play

Boys and girls often learn and play differently. Not all boys play in the same way but soon enough you can recognise the way your child plays. Learning and play times at home allow ample opportunities to play to each child's strength. Boys in general are not equal in fine motor skills as the same aged girls. In our society of equality this poses a problem. If the boys generally are not the same as the girls then the boys need help to bring them up to be equal. We don not look the other way and say the girls are too advanced and need to be slowed down. That would not make sense. With those as the two choices it is easy to see how we have all gone with the raise the achievement of the boys route.

If you see their lack of equal fine motor skills as a developmental issue then things look different. You would not expect a child who is 6 months to be feeding themselves with a spoon that may seem remarkable advanced. Whereas a 12 month old child it may not be so unusual. Although 6 months separate them in child development time this is much more important. Turn now to a 4 year old boy and 4 year old girl. We have stopped counting months. The expectation is that they will be the same or equal in their milestones. This however is not true. These four year olds have preferences and are attracted to do certain activities. Some would say predisposed because of brain development and sex differences.

The outcome for both is the same you want happy confident learners. Since they are learning through play there are many ways to provide a variety of experiences. When you look at your child do you modify their play experiences to match their personality? How do you encourage them with difficult activities?

Writing is one of those difficult activities often for boys. Not difficult that they find it hard, although some do. Difficult in getting anything like the amount you feel they are capable of doing and certainly at the same age as the girls. They may just be disinterested and not ready. Learning and play is fun but also challenging and hard many times. Your boy may prefer to run around than work on fine motor skills. We have to find the balance to that. Writing skills are important but there is a fine line between pushing when they are not ready and switching them off to writing so early on. They have more than a decade of schooling let alone life ahead where their lack of writing skills will seriously change their life outcomes. So it is not something to be light about yet we need to be careful that in the interests of equality only we are setting up boys to fail.

Sometimes we will allow them to stop the challenging work because we are building that skill and other times we need to find a new way to encourage that fine motor activity. We want to give them chances to improve and strengthen their resilience to try and succeed.

Strategies
Keep the activities short.
Have a few activities to choose from to give them choices.
Fine motor activities work really well after a running around activity.
Change the types of writing experiences without making a big deal.
Keep things fun and light.
Follow their lead and interests.

Examples

Write in unusual places: foggy mirrors or windows of the car, chalk on the back porch, make a treasure map on the driveway, shaving foam or yogurt on trays, sand in a tub. Have sets of activities in the stroller, car, in the kitchen that require finger thumb activity ( pincer grip). Many are easily made or bought including lacing cards, threading beads, cotton reels or buttons.

Keep a variety of wand toys around the home. There are magnetic ones that you use the wand to move the balls from one area to another holding the wand like a pencil. Other long time favourites are magnadoodles and etch-a-sketch which encourage fun and learning.

Play alongside them with their type of toy. Draw in the yogurt with them. It gives the activity importance because you are doing it. It may not be your first choice of activity but it is what your boy craves. We all like to have fun so as your boy gets older allow them to do all types of activity. Playing in the bath foam or scratching their name in the sand is not babyish because they can use a pencil and paper.

Encourage other males to do these types of activities with your boy and any other writing type activity. The bottom line is we want all our children to succeed and give them as many chances when they are young to develop a love of learning. This means we have to find what works for our child whether boy or girl. There are always many ways to get to the same point.