This guest post was written by Carla Mae Jansen of Turtle Trails Publishing.
Hi! I am super excited to share this fun T. Rex anatomy activity with y’all today–it’s perfect if you’re learning about dinosaurs or want a little extra science in your day!
My name is Carla Mae Jansen, and I recently finished writing A Dinosaur Made Me Sneeze, a picture book about the rock cycle (more on that below!). Anyway, since I’ve been working on this book, we have been doing a ton of geology and dinosaur activities lately–partly because the book is on everybody’s minds and partly because we all love dinosaurs!
The T. Rex Anatomy Printable
This particular activity is designed for elementary students who can read, cut, and glue independently…or mostly independently. 😉 You can totally help younger children read, and they will definitely benefit from the cutting and pasting!
In this free file, you will find three pages:
1- the blank anatomy page
2- the instruction page with anatomy boxes to cut out
3- the completed anatomy page if you want to check your answers (totally not even necessary though!)
The activity is super self-explanatory, and your kids will probably figure it out without instructions!
All they need to do is cut out the anatomy boxes and glue them in to the labeled space. For example, glue the anatomy box labeled “eye” into the blank box that points to the eye!
Fun T. Rex Facts
If you want a few more fun facts to chat about while your kids work, you could mention any of the following:
T. Rex is one of the most popular dinosaurs of all time, but they only lived on the Earth for about 2 million years!
If T. Rex had feathers, there were probably only a few on their backs or back of heads.
It’s hard to analyze T. Rex skin fossils for a lot of reasons! Here are a few:
1- Skin (and especially feather!) fossils are hard to make.
2- Most of the early paleontologists who found T. Rex bones were so excited to get to the bones, that they destroyed a lot of the skin fossils.
3- The skin that we have been able to study looks like it was mostly scales without feathers. We don’t have any skin from T. Rex backs.
Other Tyrannosaurs definitely had feathers and were around long before T. Rex.
T. Rex only lived in the land that is now in the western United States.
T. Rex ate almost everything, even other T. Rexes!
I love doing science activities with my kids, but there is an extra bonus to doing cutting and pasting projects: it strengthens the fine muscles in their fingers that are responsible for writing! A couple of my kiddos really struggle with writing, so activities that build finger strength and are fun to do are a double win for us!
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE T. REX ANATOMY ACTIVITY
I hope you have a fantastic time learning a little more about T. Rex, and other dinosaurs–they’re one of my personal favorite topics!
A Dinosaur Made Me Sneeze
Aaaand, my new picture book, A Dinosaur Made Me Sneeze, also goes perfectly with this activity!
You might recognize the dinosaur on the cover — it’s the same T. Rex as in the free activity I made!
This delightful rhyming story introduces rock cycle science (complete with vocabulary like “sedimentary,” “igneous,” “metamorphic,” and more!) with fantastic characters and a hilarious story! It showcases the changes that the Earth and rocks on the Earth make as years go by. You can learn more about it, see some of the illustrations, and more HERE!
I hope you have a “dino-tastic” time with your T. Rexes!!
Thanks again for letting me join you, and happy educating!
Carla Mae Jansen
Carla Mae Jansen is an educator, author, and mom who lives in Virginia, USA. She loves going rock-hunting, eating chocolate, and exploring new places with her family. She has a master’s degree in teaching science, and is always looking for something new to learn! You can follow along with her publishing adventures at Turtle Trails Publishing.
