On Friday 29th November, Yr3 went on their class trip to the Natural History Museum.  They were amazed by the variety of animal skeletons that they saw during their visit. They were particularly interested in the skeletons of the blue whale, the giraffe and the woolly mammoth. 

In school, they have been busy learning about rocks, soils and fossils, and so they went to take part in a workshop called 'Dino Dig'. They met one of the museum staff who was called Jess and she led their sessions. She taught the childre how to be good palaeontologists. Her top tips were: 

• Use a wide brush to brush soil away from the fossil. 
• Brush in one direction to reveal the fossil. 
• Never use your hands the brush soil away! The natural oils in our skin can damage the fossil beneath.

Once the children had finished brushing the soil away, they had to identify which dinosaur fossil they had found. Jess asked the children to provide three reasons for their answers. All groups managed to successfully work out which dinosaur they had. The groups had uncovered an edmontosaurus and an allosaurus.

Jess also told the children about the similarities between birds and dinosaurs as palaeontologists believe that birds may be the most common ancestor of dinosaurs. The largest similarity between birds and dinosaurs is their feet! 

If you want to see some more photos of Yr3 in action, have a look at our Instagram account as we will be uploading an album this week.