G-Rex
By Teri Daniels
Illustrated by Tracey Campbell Pearson
2000
Activities for Kindergarten and First Grade
Me-Rex picture.
Give students the outline of a dinosaur.(See activity sheets link.)
The goal is for each child to make the dino look like he or she
looks, by adding details on the head, and clothing on the body.
The students can also draw a prop into the dino’s claws, then,
color the picture.
Help children complete the sentence beneath the picture:
I am a bossy dinosaur when__________________________________.
Activities for Second and Third Grade
Dino-Might research
Choose a dinosaur and list three to six facts about it. Use this new
knowledge to complete the following sentence:
If I were a ___________ I would________________.
Examples:
If I were a pterodactyl I would fly to Florida.
If I were a stegosaurus, I would make donut holes with my sharp tail.
If I were a brontosaurus, I would look into windows on tall buildings.
If I were a T-rex, I would eat hamburger meat all day.
Illustrate the sentence.
Activities for Fourth Grade
Morphing Story:
A transformation is a good jumping off point for fantasy. Write a story
about a child who transforms or “morphs” into someone or something else.
Think of a character, and give him or her a problem. Then, create a transformation of the character in an attempt to solve the problem. (Remember, Gregory transformed into a carnivorous dinosaur because he wanted to play basketball and be the boss. Perhaps your character is having some sort of trouble in school. He or she might transform into an invisible person, or a tiny spider, or a computer in the computer room. There are endless possibilities.)
Activities for Fifth and Sixth Grade
Fictional News Article
Write an article for the newspaper: “Local Boy Gets Beastly”
News articles are prepared in the inverted pyramid format (or
upside down triangle):
The widest part of this triangle is at the top, representing the
most important or newsworthy information. The tip facing the bottom
represents the least newsworthy information.
Begin with the exciting news—the explanation of the headline— and then fill in the details from the most important facts to the least important tidbits. While, this article should not be written in the order of the book (chronological order), it should make perfect sense.
The inverted-pyramid article is brief but informative. Your readers want to know what happened to Gregory and his family, and why.
Remember to write the most import news first. Pull the details for your article from the following out-of-order list:
- local boy is Gregory Parker
- likes to eat grilled cheese sandwiches
- wanted to be big to play basketball
- lives at 204 Swamp Street
- his family is temporarily visiting their Aunt Fanny who lives next door
- brother’s name is Mark
- his teeth bulged, his body grew and his long tail rolled through the living room
- gulped down every scrap of meat in town
- had his parents take him to all the best restaurants
- turned into a big, bossy dinosaur
- it happened on Saturday, September 2, 2000
- he changed from boy to beast at the dinner table
- parents say he never acted that way before
- his family was having meat for dinner