Download and print the Dinosaur Timeline Resource - save the answer sheets to help if needed.
Cut out around the dinosaurs for the timeline and label the reverse side
Keep the dinosaur era research sheets for you and your child to complete
Making the Dinosaur Timeline
Stick the two pieces of white cardstock together short sides joining.
On the bottom of the cardstock (leaving enough room for labelling) draw a line that is 40cm long this represents the Mesozoic Era all 200 million years of it.
With the first colour of paper cut out a strip 10cm long. This is the Triassic Period.
On the second coloured paper cut another strip 11cm long. This is the Jurassic Period.
With the third coloured paper cut a strip that is 16cm long. This represents the last period of the Mesozoic Era the Cretaceous.
Researching the Dinosaurs and Creating the Timeline
Using the research sheets with the dinosaurs and a resource of your choice fill in the period in which the dinosaurs and other reptiles first appeared and then when they disappeared.The Mesozoic Era was from 251million years ago to 66million years ago we have created a timeline that is slightly longer than the era so you can include mammals or plants that would have come before or after the time.
Once you have the research now it's time to assemble the timeline and add in the dinosaurs.
Now take your 1st colour and place this to the left end of the line leaving a little gap to represent the end of the Paleozoic Era.
At the end of the 1st strip, place the 2nd coloured paper. Then the 3rd.
Label the strips in order Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous.
Now glue on the dinosaurs and other reptiles.
There are a lot of dinosaurs so we used coloured paper the same as the timeline to glue on the dinosaurs that we had no room for.
Notes
We recommend either finding a good none-fiction dinosaur book or using the internet to conduct the research into the different dinosaurs to show which era they belong in. Although we have included dinosaurs we have also included other noteable reptiles in the research sheets that it would be useful to put in the timeline as well.