Prehistoric mammals (and birds) and the Cenozoic era (resource list)

The rise of prehistoric mammals in the Cenozoic era, November-December 2011

Topics of focus:
Prehistoric animals
Environmental changes
Habitat changes
Extinction and evolution of mammals over time
Intro to evolution of humans

Books:
A Day With Homo Habilis (Fiorenzo Faccini)
A Day With Homo Erectus (Fiorenzo Faccini)
A Day With Neanderthal Man (Fiorenzo Faccini)
A Day With Homo Sapiens (Fiorenzo Faccini)
The Coming of Mammals: A New World (Melvin Berger)
Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Mega-Beasts (Robert Sabuda)
Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Sharks (Robert Sabuda)
Extinct! Creatures of the Past (Mary Batten)
Evolution: The Story of Life (Douglas Palmer)
Fossils Tell of Long Ago (Aliki)
From Lava to Life (Jennifer Morgan)
Life on Earth: The Story of Evolution (Steve Jenkins)
Lucy Long Ago: Uncovering the Mystery of Where We Came From (Catherine Thimmesh)

Vidoes:
Becoming Human (Nova)
Walking With Cavemen (BBC)
Walking With Prehistoric Beasts (BBC)

Websites/computer resources:
La Brea Tar Pits site (Page Museum)

Other fun things:
Prehistoric Mammals coloring book (Dover)

Activity list:
Reading, reading, reading
Drawing, coloring, writing, creating
Making a new timeline—zooming in on the Cenozoic
Researching specific animals and creating them in felt
Playing with the felt timeline, of course
Making up our own prehistoric creatures

Journal entry—human evolution and migration

Prehistoric Creature Creation

A couple of weeks ago (or maybe a month?) I typed up an eight page chart of some of the most common roots used in dinosaur names, their meanings, and their origins. I even printed it, then after all that work we didn't actually use the chart all that much; other than glancing at it from time to time it has spent most of its life tucked away in our history binder, and I hate wasting paper and resources.

Then today I had a flash of creativity and happened upon an idea for finally putting the chart to good use. Since many of the same roots were used in naming early Cenozoic animals we played a "creature creation" game where one of use would use the chart to make up an animal name while the other had to then draw the imagined animal and provide a short description.

I can be a craft person, but my imagination is sorely lacking at times. So are my drawing skills. Nonetheless, this was a really fun activity.

Weekly book shelf 11/5, Prehistoric mammals

 Evolution, by Douglas Palmer, is timeline of the evolution of life on earth. It's mainly a picture book, every two-page spread a beautiful rendering of an era in time, with a timeline stretched across the top of the page, and facts about the living things in short paragraphs at the bottom. The information is really too brief to be anything but interest piquing, but the pictures are very much worth the book, and the information at least helps identify things so you can look them up elsewhere. We love this book.

Top 10 Prehistoric Beasts, by Andrew Goldsmith. A list of the "top 10" prehistoric beasts. This book is extremely unimpressive. Calvin enjoyed that the pictures used seem to have been taken from the Walking with Prehistoric Monsters videos that he loves so much, but other than that it held little interest for him. There was no mention of how the "top 10" beasts were selected, and the information provided was scant, if not incorrect even in some places. Also, I found the flashy colors and multitude of fonts and font sizes to be distracting, or even distressing. Calvin really didn't spend much time on this one.

Woolly Mammoth, by Ron Wilson, is a cute realistic fiction that follows a young mammoth through his first year of life—eating on the plains, migrating south for winter, returning in the spring, and then mating. It's an older book and out of print, but we borrowed it from our library. This is one of those great animal stories that does not personify but showcases natural behavior in an enjoyable way. Calvin read this one over and over again.

Sabertooths and the Ice Age, by Mary Pope Osborne. A Magic Tree House non-fiction companion that I'm sure needs no explanation, no introduction. These books are definitive by any means, but I find them to be great companions to the fiction stories, and Calvin loves them.

Sunset of the Sabertooth, by Mary Pope Osborne. Magic Tree House. Calvin loves it, of course.

Journal entry—Natural History Museum