If Dinosaurs Came Back

If Dinosaurs Came Back is an elementary lesson that uses color and active imagination to create stories of new dinosaur friends. Students begin the lesson by hearing the book If Dinosaurs Came Back by Bernard Most. Where students learn about the different kinds of dinosaurs and their jobs, students are asked questions that get them thinking about their dinosaurs and what kind of jobs they would like to have all while using colors and shapes to help connect back to the elements of art.

Students were asked to recall the different dinosaurs in the video and which one they would have liked to have, and they were asked about the primary colors and what some warm colors and cool colors were. Using the warm and cool colors as a base of the lesson students were able to color their dinosaur based on their chosen primary color. If their dinosaur was a warm primary color they had to keep their dinosaur warm by coloring with the warm half of the color wheel, and if their dinosaur was a cool color they had to keep their dinosaur cool by coloring with the cool half of the color wheel.

Once colored students were able to create a landscape where their dinosaurs worked. Examples were given to students on how to draw a city, a body of water a boat, and even a home. Students were given creative freedom to create a story behind their dinosaur friend with what job they were preforming and where they were living with heir dinosaur and the students loved everything about it. They would name their dinosaurs and even draw themselves in their drawings to further their narratives!