Dinosaurs and Dragonswith
Ms. Graham's Grade 1 Class
Introduction: As
part of our “Once Upon a Time” unit, the grade ones became keenly
interested in the castles and then progressively more interested in
dragons that might live in or around the castles. As luck would have it,
I had a “dragon egg" (or maybe it is an ocean rock shaped exactly
like an egg) in my storage closet. I brought it out after we read
“Merlin and the Dragons’” wondering if this didn’t look just
like the eggs of the dragons in the story.
Instantly,
we had a nest built from materials in the room (“You have a stack of
baskets in your storage room…we’ll use the biggest one”) and our
interest in dragons became all encompassing. Stethoscopes were requested
from the medical prop box; paper and pencils were kept close by for
recording observations; and magnifying glasses were near for observing
any change or potential change! One fellow rolled out my manicure table
with a lamp and turned on the light to keep our egg warm.
One
day a child said, ”Aren’t dragons a lot like dinosaurs?” Well, instantly
we had a room full of dinosaur books and research into dinosaurs and
dragons filled our days. After many days of discussions, drawings and
reports to the “Knights of the Rectangular Table” (a link to King
Arthur) we decided that we must fully investigate the connection, if
any, between dinosaurs and dragons. Exploration Process…The Story…
Our primary “I wonder” was “Is there any connection between dinosaurs and dragons?” Children researched using the vast numbers of books in the room, the library and books from home. They discovered that there were no factual books about dragons. Dragons appeared in many fairy tales and old legends about King Arthur and Sir Gawain. This presented our first real problem, as announced by one young investigator. “Can
we really do an inquiry into anything about dragons if there are no
factual books?” Thus our second inquiry question arose. The next day, another student said she had solved this problem by simply checking the web. “Just go to “dragons.com” and there are all kinds of dragons, water dragons, fire dragons, you name it!” The web became our source of all knowledge about dragons! So now we knew there was such a thing as dragons…or so the web says. So our last inquiry
question became, “Do you believe in dragons?” Children compared the shapes of dinosaurs to the shapes of dragons and discovered great similarities. Both are extinct …another similarity. One scientist suggested that we do a Venn Diagram because it worked so well with our various versions of fairy tales.
Meanwhile daily recordings of the dragon egg and its potential hatching were given to the class by the dragon watchers. A scientist was called to ask about the gestation period for dragons and the children were told it could be 25 years and that their knowledge of these details was sketchy! So one fellow took a
chicken egg from the fridge, carried it, unwrapped in his backpack in
his dad’s new van to school to put in to the nest to keep the egg
company! An alabaster egg that decorated my memory bowl was moved into
the nest for the same reason!
Then the children suggested we write a poem for the egg…to read to it! What’s In the Egg? What
will we do if our dragon egg hatches? Run away…run away… What will we do if our dragon egg hatches? Feed it …feed it Run away…run away… What will we feed it? Not our
lunch…not our lunch Mashed
up meat…mashed up meat… Who will feed it? We’ll
make a list and take turns… Not
me…not me… Run away … Run
awaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! The
Survey At the children’s suggestion a survey “like our cat, dog, turtle, frog survey’ was initiated. They knew that all the school is connected by email, so they wrote an email to all the Victoria teachers asking if we could come to their rooms to carry out a survey. We have more than 70 responses. Initially the children
only wanted to survey children up to grade 3, because “after grade
three, all children lose their imaginations.” So this became an added
dimension to the survey. The survey as written by the children in a large group writing experience (of about 10 minutes) stated; We are
studying the connections between dragons and dinosaurs. -using
not just your scientist voice -using
your own ideas (not just saying what your friends say) -with your heart. 1.
Is there such a thing as dragons? 2.
Are there any connections between dragons and dinosaurs? Junior high students from L’Assumption Ecole in Quebec participated , as well as all subject areas in high school, Junior high and some elementary classes. Our
Tally 1.
Do you believe in dragons? Yes
311 No
61 Maybe
67 2.
Are there any connections between dragons and
dinosaurs? Yes 298 no
82 Maybe 48 This
result was very powerful. It meant that others believed in the
possibility that we might have had dragons on earth or
that dragons may have been created by ”grandmothers telling stories to
their children around the fire at night!”… “just like the Brothers
Grimm taking grandmother’s stories and putting them down on
paper!”…”just like when you brought in that giant elk antler and
we didn’t know what kind of animal it came from”…”like in
“Harald’s Stag” Conclusion
There will be no conclusion to this inquiry. Some children are convinced that the bones of dinosaurs were found by farmers and were used to help people create stories “just like we create stories about our lives”. Many
believe that we have Komodo dragons now, so there MUST have been real
dragons at some time. As
one young philosopher said, “You don’t see God anywhere, but you
have to believe in him, right?”…”yeah, just like Santa Claus”. Reflection: Such a powerful inquiry came from the children, was driven by their fascination and yet thoroughly and extensively surpassed the Language Arts curriculum, science (“the needs of plants and animals”), art, and math (estimation, measurement).
There were times when I did not think I would ever contain all the enthusiasm, the passion for research, the need for computers to investigate, the time for reports that just had to be given by wildly excited scientist! Inquiry has renewed my passion for teaching and learning! Addendum to Dinosaur-Dragon Report
I may have finished with this inquiry unit, but the children and the learning has not abated! Several stories have been written and published during Writers Workshop. Dragons have become a constant theme in their written work.
Roland’s story “ The Legend of the Dragon” We had a fabric artist, Mrs. Hutton, come to the school from Profiles Gallery in St. Albert to do fabric workshops with the children. A vast majority of them created dragons as their focal point on their banners.
One student has had her birthday party since this inquiry…and it became a medieval feast, with a quest (with written clues) and a dragon “Pete the Ferocious” as their piñata. The commitment to their learning, their active involvement and their approach to learning has never been keener!
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