When Dinosaurs Go to School

by Linda Martin

What happens when dinosaurs go to school? After goodbye hugs and a quick bus ride, they spend the day playing and learning. They mix up squishy fingerpaints, practice playing tuba, munch prickly pizza, brave the dino-slide, and look forward to another day of school. With her funny, rhyming text and hilarious illustrations, Linda Martin invites everyone to see just how cool-osaurus school can be.

Genres: School, Dinosaurs, Animals, Picture Books, Back To School, Childrens, Fiction

32 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1999

Reviews

[Zoraya Brown]

This is a great book to read during the beginning of the school year to help children adjust to the new experience of going to school. Children often go through anxiety due to the new routines and having to be around people that they don't know. Hearing this story is a way to open up the conversation about what to expect, how fun school can be and how children may be afraid, but they don't have to be. We would discuss which routines mentioned in the book are ones that the children experience each day, including family goodbyes and modes of transportation. The pictures are very elaborate, colorful, intriguing and nicely drawn. Using dinosaurs to describe it all is an interesting way to break the ice in the classroom and keep children's interest.

[Kiera Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book! I would read this book to my Pre-K students. This book makes great discussion on the the first day of school and you can extend it to a math graphing activity as well. You could see how many children rode the bus, rode in a car or some other type of transportation. You could also have the children participate in an open ended discussion about some ways that their routine is the same as the dinosaurs and some ways that it is different.

[Adriana Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Text to teach connection:

This book would be great for the first day of school! It explains a day in the life of the Dinosaur children and how it closely resembles the day in the life of our students. A conversation could arise about routines, how everyone’s morning routine is carried out and there could even be a lesson on sequencing. Students could cut out pictures of the Dino’s day at school and make it into a little sequence booklet of the Dino’s day. My children enjoyed this one!

[Danielle LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute. I love the weird squiggly drawing style and the rhymes are great. Not a ton of text per page and lots of detail in each picture—a real balanced sweet spot in kids’ books I say. Oscar is not interested in this one at all, but I want to use it to get him ready for preschool one day. But what fancy suburbial school district has a POOL in elementary school?! Booooo-zheee.

[Sean Harding · Rating 3 out of 5]

Martin Mart #1
Well I thought I had read this but I think it was a similar titled book - anyway that is neither here nor there, this was an average book, with the notion that dinosaurs can not only go to school, but fit on the bus - anyway silly yarn, but young ones especially the dinosaur crown may love it.

[Ginna]

Great book for the first day of school!
Make a booklet for each student and ask them to draw a sequence of pictures that show what they did during that first day of school.
Ask them:
What did you do this morning after you wake up?
What did you have for breakfast?
How did you come to school - Did you ride the bus, did you walk or you were car-rider?
Who brought you to school ?
WHat did you do this morning?

Then next day ask them to finish it.
What classrooms you visited yesterday?
How did you ride back home?
Who took you back home?
What did you do at home?
At what time you went to bed?

Let them finish their book and have them in the library for a week or two for them to read. Pull them out and bring them back in January, when most of your Kindergartners are writing and ask them to add a sentence or two to each page. Have them available in their library again for another two weeks.

[Glennisha]

This is a great book for children who are going to Preschool, Pre-K or Kindergarten. This Book offers comfort and assures children who are anxious and or worried that school can be filled with fun. I personally read this book to my Godson Nyindae who is going to Preschool this coming September. He asked me a ton of questions like "Will my teacher like me?, Is it fun like my other school?, Will I be able to paint you pictures?" After reading "When Dinosaurs Go To School" to him a few times, he is now looking forward to Preschool. I gave him his own copy of the book so he can look at it whenever he gets worried. Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes, is also another great book that I will read to him to help him with his worrying about everything he thinks about daily.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very cute book with characters that children love! Dinosaurs entrance every child! The illustrations are fun and colorful, while the plot line is simple and easy to follow. This would be a great book to read the first week of school to help children acclimate to the routine of school. However, for me this book lacks a bit of richness. While it would be a great book to use for beginning school, it does not easily connect to other domains.


Learning Extension:
I would use this book to start learning about routines. I would read this book the first week of school and then after we read the book we will talk about what routines are. Then as a class we will make a large chart of what our daily routine in class is going to be for the year.

[Jaelyn J.]

Beginning school is sometimes a trepidatious task for young ones. This book is an amazing introduction into some of the activities students will be participating in when they arrive at school. Our class would read this at the beginning of the school year. After we read it, we would altogether create a picture class schedule using magazines and any other collage materials. Hopefully this will help the students transition better in school. After all, not knowing what is going to happen next is probably the scariest thing for young learners.

[Jazmin Palma]

I would build a contrasting diagram with the class. First we would read the book and then list the similarities and differences between the day of the dinosaurs and the day of the children. Another activity I would do also using the book is learning about routine. The book tells us about the routine of the dinosaurs' before and during school. We would discuss what routine is and the children could do their own routine booklet.

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a simple, easy and fun way to introduce the fun of going to school. I read this to our oldest as she began Pre-Kindergarten and it was very timely. We've borrowed it a couple of times and our girls really like it. The rhyming narrative and colorful illustrations entertain younger children.

[Hannah Morrison]

Super fun book! The rhyming gives the book a rhythm that is very fun to read aloud. The book could calm first day of school fears or just serve as a reminder of why we love school. Children will be entertained to see their lives being lived by dinosaurs, and it is relatively short so will most likely hold the atention of Kindergartners.

[Anna Johnson]

Great picture book, this book can be used at the beginning of the school year to foster understanding of following a schedule. it demonstrates various activities in the classroom and therfore can be used to introduce centers. The illustrations are large and colorful which can be easily used for near and distance questions, to encourage expressive language.

[Bee]

This book is great for trying to set a schedule for children or trying to get them on a schedule. The students will be able to relate to the Dinosaur's schedule and see that they do some of the things. The teacher may have to use the book to explain to a child the difference of a school day and not. This can also be used to establish routine with children with exceptional needs.

[Katrina Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Students: Preschool, Pre-K or Kindergarten

Read on the first day or first week of school; comforts and assures anxious/worried students.

The text of this story is not all that great for students to observe. The text is a bit overwhelming.

Great that it's a dinosaur book!!

Children love dinosaurs! (well most of them)

[Salima Hart · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a REALLY cute story about dinosaurs going to school. The book uses end rhyme throughout to talk about all the different activities that dinosaurs do at school. Reading this is great if you want children to learn to compare and contrast because they can compare and contrast their own school day and activities with what the dinosaurs do at their school.

[Toya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! I read this book last semester to a group of Kindergarten students. It was a great book for discussion as well. We went over nearness and distance questions from the things that happened in the story.

[Lajune Neal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good story to read to little children who are getting ready for their first day of school. It reminds me of when I was a little girl going to school and how it looked on the first day. This story is also great to use when children are learning about rhyming words and is an exciting book.

[Julie Woods]

A great books for kids to read before going to school. This book gives a firsthand glimpse of what the first day of school will be like so they can ease their minds. Great read for children going to kindergarten.

[Katie Williams]

This is a book really for kindergartners or emerging readers. As the title states, this book is most appropriate to read around the first days of school. It would be a good starter book to establishthe classroom rules and schedule with children.

[Brittany Houston]

This book reflects the shared experiences of attending a school. Students can easily relate to the text, so teachers can make appropriate connections and ask students to share how the dinosaurs' school is like their own school.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book would help children understand how a school routin works. I think reading this story in the first week(beginning) of school would be a great idea, so the teacher and students are able to share/discuss any experiences of school relate to the story.

[Lakeira King · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was great. It was given to me by one of my professors and I really enjoyed it. The pictures are very detailed and have lots to look at. The book is also filled with rhyming if your teaching rhyming skills.

[Jackie Douthat]

This book would be useful to play with the rhyming words, letting the students fill in what comes next kind of thing. It's also good to use in the beginning of the year to talk about not only routine but the different activities that the students will get to participate in at school!

[Alysia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book fits well in two topics for the classroom; the first one is the introduction of rhyme, second is the introduction of having a daily schedule and lastly this book could be used for the purpose of back to school or first time at school.

[Jermeria Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would use this book in the beginning of the school year to help with developing a schedule for the school day. Children can draw pictures and write what each element of the day is so that it can be posted on the wall.

[Brittany White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Children will love the idea of dinosaurs going to school. How crazy to imagine that! Well this book perfectly portrays what that might be like!

[Shantia Redd · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is great for a child who is making a transition into school. It demonstrates rhyming and an example of a schedule that the child may follow in school.

[Meagan Elmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for Pre K-1. It will help the children understand how a school schedules works.

[Kai Palmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

So many concepts can be used with this book...rhyming words, what comes next, distinguish between real and make believe.