Dinosaur Time Line

This afternoon we got to enjoy the beautiful afternoon with some time on the playground. We all lined up on the edge of the basketball court. We wanted to better understand how long dinosaurs roamed the Earth. We imagined we were standing 250 millions years ago at the beginning of the Triassic Period. The children took one step for every million years to get to 208 million years ago walking toward the baseball diamond. This is when the Triassic Period ends (after 42 million years) and the Jurassic Period begins. The children took one step for every million years to get to 144 million years ago. This was when the Jurassic Period ends (after 64 million years) and the Cretaceous Period begins. Finally, they took one step for every million years to get to 65 million years ago. This is when the dinosaurs became extinct, therefore the Cretaceous Period ends (after 79 million years).

The children were blown away thinking about how long dinosaurs really existed. They were especially amazed by the fact that humans have only been on earth for about 10,000 years. It became even clearer to them when Steven said, "Hey, if one step equals 1 million years, then humans are only a little tiny part of that step!" I couldn't have said it better myself.