To prepare for this song, I draw a picture of a dinosaur driving a car on five index cards. (The pictures don’t have to be perfect, the kids are generally easy critics in this department. Look at some dinosaur illustrations to give you inspiration.) I arrange the pictures on my pocket chart and ask the children if they think dinosaurs drove cars. We talk about this idea for a bit, and generally conclude that these are five silly dinosaurs. In fact, there’s a song about these five silly dinosaurs!
Five Silly Dinosaurs
(To the tune of Five Brown and Speckled Frogs)
Five silly dinosaurs (Hold out five fingers)
Driving in their dino-cars (Mime driving at the steering wheel)
Waving as they pass each other by. (Wave)
One got stuck in the tar (Tip one picture on end, so that it appears the front of the car is stuck.)
Then he couldn’t drive his car (Take picture away.)
Now there are four silly dinosaurs. (Hesitate so that the children supply the number.)
Repeat the song, counting down to zero. When you get to “Now there are no silly dinosaurs,” it is a great opening to talk about the concept of extinction.
Singing this song also enhances language and literacy skills as the children participate in a rhyme, music skills as they follow rhythm and pitch, and math skills as they count down the number of dinosaurs, laying groundwork for the concept of subtraction.
I think dinosaurs would be better drivers than humans.