Teacher TIPS for Success
Lots of ideas that you can use in teaching children
Classrooms / Home schools / Church schools / Vacation Bible schools
Make It Fun! Dinosaurs can be used in a friendly, entertaining way to bring extra fun and enjoyment to your curriculum. Dinosaurs can make kids really look forward to your class!
| Glorify God |
Use dinosaurs to teach students to glorify our Creator.
Present dinosaurs as interesting animals that fit naturally with the Bible and Christianity—creatures that kids can make their own and enjoy without apology—great animals that God created for our enjoyment. Avoid describing dinosaurs as a problem for Christians. Rather, present them positively. Make students feel comfortable with dinosaurs.
| "You Have a Purpose" |
Show students that God has a purpose for dinosaurs. And he "also has a purpose for you and me". Present the plan of salvation.
| Teach Students to Think for Themselves |
Make a distinction between what we know and what we can only guess.
Help students develop a healthy skepticism about what they read about dinosaurs and other ancient animals known only from fossils. A surprising amount of the information presented in typical dinosaur books is questionable and theoretical (even though presented as “facts” or near-certainties). Try to instill a healthy sense of wariness in your students.
| Encourage |
Let kids know they could grow up to one day become a scientist or researcher that could help solve the many mysteries surrounding dinosaurs, the Flood, etc.
Activities you can use…
 Films and VideosRoom DecorationsPositive Reinforcement ToolsHands-OnGamesBooks |
Research ProjectsVisual AidsCraft IdeasMuseum Field-tripMake Your Own Class MuseumShow-and-Tell |
| Films and Videos |
Kids love these videos! They make a great addition to every curriculum. Some videos can be purchased from our online gift shop. Others can usually be borrowed from friends, church, school, or public lending libraries. Show them in a darkened room for best effect and
| Room Decorations |
Brighten your room with dinosaur decorations. Reinforce the concepts that you are teaching. Use dinosaur posters, pictures, models and inflatables. We prefer the more friendly-looking, non-menacing dinosaur pictures and models to avoid reinforcing the stereotypes of evolutionism. Some of the children may be able to supply items you can use. Items can usually be purchased in party stores, department stores, mail order, etc.
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Avoid scenes that are 100% dinosaur. Include some other animals. Otherwise you may reinforce evolutionism’s deception (e.g., "there was a time when only reptiles existed or that dinosaurs were once the dominant animals of the Earth"). We prefer scenes show a variety of animals in a normal balance. Get children used to seeing dinosaurs this way—intermixed with other animals.
Avoid scenes that promote any other evolutionary concepts.
| Positive Reinforcement Tools that kids love to take home |
- Award or certificate in the shape of a dinosaur.
- Dinosaur button, hat, or T-shirt
- Dinosaur rubber stamps used to grade papers (or offer praise)
- Membership in a Dinosaur Club.
- Prizes—a free Christian dinosaur book, video, toy, etc.
| Hands-On - a tactile, hands-on approach |
- Fossils
- Casts of fossils
- Dinosaur models
- Diorama
- Sediments
- Sedimentary rock
- Make a “fossil” (e.g., make a plaster cast of an object)
- Etc.
| Games |
DINOSAUR HUNT—hide inexpensive dinosaur models or toys on playground—then let children try to find them. Dinosaur toys available at some party stores and toy stores. You could also use “dinosaur eggs” to hide the toys in (e.g., easter eggs or the egg-shaped container that some panty hose come in).
FOSSIL DIG—hide fossils (real or pretend) in a sand box.
| Books and Reading |
Read from the entertaining book, Dry Bones and Other Fossils (by Dr. Gary Parker), or from other Christian-based dinosaur books.
Read from The Great Dinosaur Mystery and the Bible.
Read from evolutionary books, AND THEN:
- Show students what is wrong with evolutionary beliefs.
- Point-out errors using Bible, etc.
- Ask students, "Do you feel good about what this book just said? Why or why not? What does that mean? What makes you feel uncomfortable about what it said?"
| Visual Aids - use them whenever possible (kids love them) |
- Fossils
- Posters
- Movies
- Videos (OK, if class is small)
- Slides
- Overhead transparencies
- Filmstrips
- Flannelgraph
- Bulletin board display
- Pictures in books
| Craft Ideas |
Suggested Craft Topics
- Behemoth
- Adam with dinosaur
- Noah with dinosaur
- Noah’s Ark
- The Flood story
- Appropriate Bible verses
- CUT AND PASTE. Paste-up pictures of various animals with dinosaurs (on a big roll of paper or on individual sheets).
- DIORAMA. Build a diorama (or habitat) in a box. Let students depict what they think the pre-Flood world looked like. (e.g., no rain, mist came out of ground, lush plant life, beautiful, variety of animals, ?-evil people that God had to destroy). NOTE: One teacher cleverly used dry-ice to depict the mist that went up from the ground in the Garden of Eden.
- MOBILE. Construct a dinosaur mobile using paper cut-outs or models.
- CLAY. Make dinosaurs out of play dough.
- WINDOW. Dinosaur window or wall decorations.
- DESK. Dinosaur desk decorations.
- COLORING. Color pictures of dinosaurs from a Christian book on dinosaurs.
- DRAWING. Draw pictures of dinosaurs and related creation subjects.
| Museum Field-Trip |
If you take a class field-trip to a museum with dinosaur fossils or reconstructions, please be sure to do the following:
- Visit the museum yourself, FIRST (if at all possible). Learn in advance what kind of evolutionary ideas are being promoted and how. In some cases you may want to avoid taking kids (especially younger ones) through certain audio-visual presentations, if they powerfully present too many wrong ideas. Also, if you are taking very young students, be sensitive to how they may react to what is seen and shown. (My kindergartner went on a school field trip to see a display of very large, growling dinosaurs and an Evolutionary dinosaur film that included scenes of dinosaurs attacking and eating each other. That night she had nightmares about being attacked by dinosaurs.)
- Prepare the students for anything they will see or hear at the museum that is wrong or questionable or based only on human guesswork.
- Review the basic content of this Web site, or The Great Dinosaur Mystery and the Bible book. Interpret the museum exhibits for the students from a Creationist perspective—before and after the field trip. Be sure to correct any misconceptions students might have gained from visiting the museum.
| Make Your Own Class Museum |
| Show-and-Tell |
Students bring examples of their dinosaurs from home.
| Research Projects |
Assign research projects. Examples include:
- How do dinosaurs fit into history?
- Ways in which the pre-Flood world was different from our world.
- Six days of Creation.
- What does “after its kind” mean?
- List wrong ideas that evolutionists believe about dinosaurs and history.
- Weights and sizes of dinosaurs. Comparisons to other animals.
- Compare dragons to dinosaurs.
- Write story about what it might have been like to live with Adam in the Garden of Eden (pre-Fall).