Dinosaur Themed Games Can Help Children Learn Through Creative Play

Dinosaur Games can help Children Learn aboutthat will help them understand other aspects of
Sciencethe national curriculum.
Dinosaurs and children seem to go togetherCard Games can help Memory and Factual Recall
rather well. Many children become fascinated byThe use of the game cards incorporated in this
these amazing prehistoric creatures and soon getdice based game, deserves particular analysis.
to grips with their complicated Latin names. SomeWithin the game there are three types of playing
children, young girls as well as boys, obsess oncards. Firstly, there are those cards that feature
them and rapidly learn many facts and figuresthe dinosaurs themselves, twenty in total equally
related to their favourite prehistoric creatures.divided into carnivores (known as Theropods) and
The subject of dinosaurs and certain eventsherbivores, primarily the Ornithischians and
associated with them such as the mass extinctionSauropodomorphs. The second set of cards are
event can help teachers and teaching assistantsthe timeline cards, which when drawn in the
to develop imaginative and creative dinosaurcourse of game play determine the geological
themed exercises that can be used in classroomperiod in which the dice based combats are
situations to help underpin key teaching concepts.played out. Finally, there are a serious of combat
When developing a teaching strategy, thebased cards that enable players to consider
emphasis these days is to move away fromtactical ploys in order to give them an advantage
traditional didactic learning techniques and adopt ain a period of game play.
less formal approach. Didactic teaching still has itsJurassic Wars is targeted at children from ages 8
place, of that there is no doubt, after all, formalto adult, but we have played this game with
instruction was the basis of teaching for manychildren as young as six, using it as an aid to
earlier generations. Formal instruction, wherebybridge the gap between moving from Key Stage
the tutor does the majority of the talking and the1 principles towards Key Stage 2 in the national
method of delivery is based around instructionalteaching curriculum of the United Kingdom.
activities is still appropriate. However, there hasBy playing with these card based games, young
been a trend amongst teaching bodies andlearners can develop skills of reasoning and
educational organisations to move towardsproblem solving through the creative and tactical
discovery learning. Discovery learning, alsogame play. Problem solving skills and the realising
sometimes referred to as "inquiry learning",of consequences can help form links that can be
particularly in the United States, helps youngused in other analytical situations whether science
learners to grasp the fundamental principles of aor maths based teaching or indeed in other parts
particular subject or module within the nationalof the teaching syllabus. We have noticed that
curriculum. The objective behind discovery learningmany children gain confidence in their own abilities,
is to enable the learner to develop theirthe dice based functions bring in the concepts of
knowledge through investigation and problemprobability and luck which can help even out game
solving. Additionally, by "doing" the student is moreplay so that every player gets the chance to win
likely to remember and recall information.some of the dinosaur combats.
When young children read books about dinosaurs,Improvements in Factual Recall and Memory
or when they play dinosaur themed games theyThere have been numerous studies undertaken to
are involving themselves in self-discovery. A childassess the impact of card based memory games
that can talk about dinosaurs using the longto help students gain confidence in their own
names and complex words associated with theabilities and improve their factual recall and
science of palaeontology is developing self-esteemmemories. By playing a game such as Jurassic
and self-actualisation. Parents, teachers andWars, children are helping to train their memories.
guardians too, are rewarded, they see theirAn improvement in memory will have a beneficial
charges growing in intellectual potency, the proudimpact on knowledge retention and understanding,
father puffs out his chest as his daughterhelping young learners to forge links between key
describes the difference between aconcepts in unrelated curriculum areas. There is
Styracosaurus and a Triceratops, for example.plenty of published evidence and information to
Using dinosaurs to theme lessons can lead tosuggest that creative play and self-discovery aids
creative, imaginative play. It will help them developthe student's ability to recall data. Children readily
reasoning and problem solving skills that can beassimilate the information on the cards in their
used in other analytical situations. For example, weown heads and start to make their own links
came across the dice based, dinosaur themedbetween the sources of information.
game "Jurassic Wars" and one of the conceptsGame playing using dinosaur facts and figures can
that this game teaches is that not all dinosaurshelp children grasp a number of fundamental
lived at the same time. By playing the game withnational curriculum concepts. Discovery learning
a child, an adult such as their tutor can introduceoften involves role-playing and such dice based
concepts such as deep time and encourage younggames can lead onto other teaching activities such
students to grasp the fundamental principles ofas discussion and brainstorming to explore key
geology and chronology - key scientific aspectsconcepts and outcomes.