Dinothesaurus: Prehistoric Poems and Paintings: MODULE 2! Florian Poetry

Dinothesaurus: Prehistoric Poems and Paintings

Florian, Douglas. 2009. Dinothesaurus: Prehistoric Poems and Paintings. New York. Atheneum Books for Young Readers. ISBN 978-I-4169-7978-4. 

REVIEW

Douglas Florian has created twenty separate poems about specific dinosaurs in this amazing picture book.  Each poem begins with the name of the dinosaur, pronunciation of the dinosaur, and the brief meaning behind the name of the dinosaur.  The poems have great rhyming and are about true characteristics of that specific dinosaur.  The poems are so fun to read out loud.  Children will the find the comparisons between the dinosaur and everyday objects hilarious.  For example the poem titled Brachiosaurus “Longer than a tennis court. Bigger than a barge.  I never knew a lizard could ever be so large.”  While the poems are silly and fun it is a good way for younger children to about this prehistoric time.  While I loved the poems I thought the illustrations were a little weird.  They are done in a crayon drawing, or cut outs.  Some poems had better illustrations than other.  I really liked the Tyrannosaurus rex illustrations but I did not care for the Pterosaurs illustrations. 

For the children who want to know more about the dinosaurs the poems were about there is a Glossarysaurus in the back which provides factual information on the dinosaurs that the poems were based around. 

One of my favorite poems from this book was

 Barosaurus

BAR-oh-SAW-rus (heavy lizard)

I’m higher than five elephants.

I’m longer than most whales.

My giant neck is balanced by

My forty-three-foot tail.

A tail that is my weapon.

It wings from side to side.

From nose to tail I’m ninety feet-

Hey kid, ya wanna ride?

Classroom/Library Connection

 Recommended audience:  Ages 7-11 

Most all children love the mystery behind dinosaurs and love learning about them.  This is a fun way to read about them while they are learning facts.  Most schools do a prehistoric unit and this would be a great way to introduce the unit. 

Before reading: Ask children what their favorite dinosaur is.  Have them write some facts that they know about that dinosaur or think they know about it. 

During reading: Read several poems to the class about the popular dinosaurs to them slowly so that they can hear all the facts about the dinosaur.  Ask them what their favorite one was.    

Reread the poem: The second time around re-read the poem and have children listen for all the fun things in the poem.  Have them pick out there favorite part and dinosaur. 

After reading: Have the children pick their dinosaur that they want to spend a week researching and finding facts out about.  Then have them write their own poem that is full of facts and share them in front of the class so everyone can learn about all the dinosaurs.  Have them do a crayon drawing on their dinosaur just like Florian did

There are so many fun things you can do with this book.   It can be used just for fun or for learning.  Librarians could use this in a dinosaur themed storytime and teachers have endless options available to them.  I would recommend this book to anyone that is looking for a fun education poetry book on dinosaurs.