Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time By James Gurney Activities with Part 2 Pages 57 - 85 Note: (Audio version of these pages is approximately 21 minutes in length.)

Activities

1. Vocabulary word for Part 2 is resonating  (sound like thunder, a sound characterized by reverberation, backlash)

   Page 59 - Each of the hadrosaurs was equipped with its own distinctive resonating chamber, which it used to hoot at others of its own kind - even if those kinfolk were miles away through fog and forest.

2. Will, Arthur, and Bix travel into Waterfall City by "flying vessels, with sail-like wings, coasting through the air without flapping".  Learn more about how gliders work. Then try building your own glider. These website will help you:  

   Building an Experimental Glider http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~flight/build1.html

   Paper Airplane  http://www.zurqui.com/crinfocus/paper/airplane.html

   McEagle Styrofoam Glider  http://www.lerc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/TRC/Aeronautics/GLIDER.html

   YES Mag Flyer  http://www.yesmag.bc.ca/projects/flyer.html

3. Timepieces. The people of Dinotopia have a completely different way of telling time. Malik, the timekeeper, describes time as a spiral; "So time moves on, but history repeats itself." Learn about timepieces from the earliest sundial to modern clocks. Have students make different types of time measurement devices such as a sundial, candle clock, hourglass, or water clock.

   Four simple sundials you can make http://www.sundials.co.uk/projects.htm

   Making a sundial for the Northern hemisphere.  http://solar.physics.montana.edu/YPOP/Classroom/Lessons/Sundials/

   A Walk Through Time http://physics.nist.gov/GenInt/Time/time.html

   Sundials from NASA  http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/Earth/Sundials/Sundials.asp

   Clockworks:  From Sundials to the Atomic Second   http://www.britannica.com/clockworks/startpage.html

4. Dinotopian Writing On page 73 you can find the footprint alphabet used by Dinotopians. Study this alphabet and write your own message using footprints. Additional exercises with this alphabet may be found at:

   Dinotopia Puzzles  http://www.dinotopia.com/puzzle.htm

   Dinotopia Bookmark (32K). A bookmark with the Dinotopia alphabet.

   Finish the Code (1.5MB). The Dinotopia Code was carved on an ancient tablet, using the Dinotopia alphabet and decipher the missing code.

   Dinosaur ABC (1.3MB). Use the Dinotopia alphabet to write simple information.

   Dinotopia Hallmark Site  http://www.visitdinotopia.com/Dinotopia_flash.html Go to Games. Choose the game Find 26. Also at this site play Mosasaur Swamp.

    

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