Load the Dinosaur dig story. Ss help to make the pre-story puzzle. Ss tell you where the picture comes from (a computer game) and how they know (“3 lives left”).
Play the story. Ss complete as much as they can of part 1 of the activity sheet. Play the story again to help Ss finish. Give the Ss the text of the story to check their answers.
Ss write about their favourite computer game on part 3 of the activity sheet.
Ss design their own computer game. They should decide: the name, the characters, what you have to find in the game, what you mustn’t do, what you have to watch out for, how many lives you have got, etc. Ss can design the front and back cover of the game box, or an advertising poster for it.
Ss re-write the story, based on their own game, with themselves as the characters. Low levels can copy the original story, just changing details, high levels can be more creative.
Ss review some dinosaur vocabulary with this labelling game or through mime. Afterwards you can feed in some more vocabulary from the following activity.
Ss do some dinosaur research. Put up information about different dinosaurs around the room, separated by category not dinosaur: i.e. don’t put all the T-Rex information in one place, put the diet information of all the dinosaurs in one place, the size information in another place, etc. You can find much of the information on the flashcards. Give Ss this report to complete in pairs (tell them what dinosaur they’re going to research). Ss go round the room and find out the information. Once the reports have been completed, display the reports either around the room or on a large map of the world where each dinosaur lived. Then give the Ss the dinosaur facts worksheet, and they read each others’ reports in order to complete/check their answers. Or, Ss can give a mini-presentation on their dinosaur, acting out how their dinosaur walked/behaved etc.
Ss play the Quiz-o-saurus game to review their dinosaur research. Higher levels can try the dinosaur history game and then the dinosaur expert quiz. Ideal if Ss can work in pairs on a computer in a computer room. Or, Ss in pairs can write a quiz for another pair to complete.
Ss play the game in part 2 of the activity sheet.
Experiment: make a fossil! Use the instructions in the discovering dinosaurs worksheet. Ss can imagine a dinosaur or pre-historic creature which their fossil came from.
There are many activities on the British Council’s site for young learners which you can use with your learners to help them develop their writing skills.
