Reading Tips from “How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?”

What you need: 

• How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? by Mark Teague 
• Construction paper 
• Yarn 
• Hole punch 
• Crayons and/or markers 

Reading tips:

1. This book explores the contrasts between "good" and "bad" bedtime behavior in a playful way. For instance, it asks if dinosaurs jump on the bed, or whether they give their parents a kiss and say "goodnight." 
    
2. As you read the book with your child, ask your child to identify what the dinosaur is doing on each page before reading the text. 
    
3. After finishing the book, talk about what kinds of things the dinosaur did that were helpful to his parents and what things he did that were, perhaps, not so helpful. 

To extend the reading:

1. Create a "Dinosaur Day" book. Invite your child to think of how a dinosaur gets up, goes to school, eats lunch, cleans up his room, goes to the park, eats dinner, takes a bath, and so forth. 
    
2. Use yarn to bind construction paper together to make a book. Invite your child to draw how and what a dinosaur is doing at different times of the day. On facing pages, she can draw a dinosaur at the park throwing sand, and a dinosaur at the park digging cooperatively in the sandbox with his friend. Help your child write accompanying text underneath her pictures. 
    
3. As an alternative, your child could make a Dinosaur Schedule. She can draw what a dinosaur does throughout the day, going from morning until evening. Write what time the dinosaur does each activity next to the pictures. 

Learning Benefits:

• Supports comparing and contrasting.
• Enhances social development (highlights good behavior).
• Encourages awareness of time.
• Promotes creativity.