Using the dinosaur curriculum have your students go through the process of putting a skeleton together and end up with a mural of the dinosaur or marine reptile.

1. Hide the skeleton pieces outside, preferably in an area where a fossil might possibly be found.
2. Have a skeleton hunt.
3. Assemble the pieces like a jigsaw puzzle.
4. Analyze the fossil with the help of information sheets.
5. On the provided paper outline the skin around the skeleton.
6. Determine the dinosaur or marine reptile’s habitat and whether it should be camouflaged or otherwise colored.
7. Paint and end up with a reconstruction of the dinosaur or marine reptile.
8. Have the students determine what vegetation existed during the animal’s lifetime and add to the background.

See the curriculum implemented in the classroom:
Go on a simulated dinosaur dig with a 2nd grade class at the Willett School in Attleboro, Massachusetts.

More dinosaur activities and examples of reconstructed dinosaur and marine reptile murals.