Sizing Up Dinosaurs

Show your child a tape measure and explain that you are going to use it to mark off three different lengths on the ground for this activity: 40, 60, and 100 feet. Encourage your child to help. Put a sports cone at the start and end of each of the lengths. You may also wish to mark off each 10 feet on the field and put additional markers at each of these points. That way, she can practice counting by tens to the dinosaurs’ lengths, “10, 20, 30, 40…”

Have your child lie down on the ground. Use a tape measure to find out her length/height. Round this measurement to the nearest foot. Explain that Tyrannosaurus rex was about 40 feet long from the tip of his snout to the tip of his tail. Ask your child to guess about how much longer a T. rex is compared to her. Then, compare your child’s length with an adult T. rex’s.

Attach a picture of a T. rex on the sports cone (or other marker) at the starting point marked off earlier. Stand next to it. Then, have your child take the second picture of the T. rex with a tape loop on it and walk 40 feet to the end point, where the other cone is. Have your child attach the other T. rex sports cone at the other end.

Use a stopwatch to see how long it takes your child to walk from one T. rex cone to the other. Write it down on the data collection chart. If you wish, you can ask your child to see how fast she can run this distance.

Repeat Steps 3 and 4 for the other two dinosaur species: Spinosaurus and Argentinosaurus (60 feet away, and 100 feet away, respectively).