Educator Resource Guide

Erth’s Visual and Physical Inc. presents

Dinosaur Petting Zoo

February 19-20, 2013

9:30AM, 11:45AM

Ikeda Theater

Grades: K-8

WELCOME!

Dear Educator,

Thank you for selecting a Performing Live for Students field trip with the Mesa Arts Center. We have a

dynamic season planned and we look forward to connecting you to our many artists and performances. With

Performing Live, students are able to experience live theatre and make educational connections well beyond

the classroom.

We also recognize and appreciate the energy and time spent on your part in coordinating field trips. In this

guide we have provided information to help make this the best experience possible, which

includes:

♦ Arizona State Academic Standards / Curriculum Connections

♦ Logistics / Theater Etiquette / Chaperones

♦ Parking / Mesa Arts Center Map

♦ Mesa Public Library Supplemental Resources

In addition, the Mesa Arts Center has many open and inviting spaces that make good places to hold a brown

bag lunch. Prior arrangements for lunch accommodations need to be made by either calling (480) 644-6609

or emailing outreach@mesaartscenter.com.

Please contact our offices should you have any additional questions.

Enjoy the show!

Mandy Buscas

Arts Education Outreach Coordinator

P 480-644-6609 | F 480-644-6503

mandy.buscas@mesaartscenter.com

Ashley Hare

Arts Education Outreach Associate

P 480-644-6540 | F 480-644-6503

ashley.hare@mesaartscenter.com

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS

Erth’s Visual and Physical Inc. presents Dinosaur Petting Zoo

An eye-popping visual experience of giant puppetry, stilt-walkers, in-

flatable environments, aerial and flying creatures. Travel on a journey

through prehistoric ages and experience dinosaurs and creatures that

inhabited the Earth millions of years ago.

LEARNING THROUGH THE ARTS

AZ Standards: Introduction and Rationale

♦ Theater allows students in a collaborative

and individual manner to explore varied

cultural experiences and universal themes of

humankind within a safe context.

♦ By understanding the contribution music

makes to culture and history, students are

better prepared to live and work in

multicultural settings.

♦ Dance contributes to and defines our culture,

and is a means to create and understand our

personal and cultural identities.

BUS BUSTER ACTIVITY

Q&A activities for the bus ride back to school.

♦ Tell your seatmate 3 facts about your

favorite dinosaur.

♦ With your seat mate create a story about the

one day in the life of a dinosaur.

♦ Discuss your personal reactions to the

Puppet manipulation in the performance.

Arizona State Academic Standards

By attending this performance your students will:

THEATER:

S1: C1: PO 104: Follow established theatre safety rules.

S2: C1: PO 203: Discuss how theatre skills can benefit other life skill

areas.

S2: C2: PO 303: Explain how one’s own behavior might change in

response to a performance.

S3: C2: PO101: Demonstrate respectful audience behavior.

SCIENCE:

S4: C3: PO 2: Identify what plants and animals need to grow and sur-

vive

S4: C1: PO 2: Compare the following observable features of living

things: movement, protection, respiration, support.

S4: C3: PO 3: Identify observable similarities and differences be-

tween/among different groups of animals.

S4: C3: PO 3: Describe how plants and animals within a habitat are

dependent on each other.

Curriculum Connections

Folktales / Storytelling / Personal and group identity / Perceptions:

Relationships / Behavior / Imagination: Being in a particular time and

place in history

SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE!

We’d love to hear your students’ response to our

shows. We especially appreciate pictures and let-

ters!

outreach@mesaartscenter.com

Logistics

THEATER ETIQUETTE

♦ Food and beverages must remain outside the theater at all times.

♦ A visit to the restroom should occur prior to the start of the performance. Please enter and exit the

theater only when absolutely necessary.

♦ If students have backpacks and other belongings they should be left outside of the theater either in the

lobby or on the bus.

♦ Cameras and recording devices may not be used in the theater.

♦ Cell phones must be turned off inside the theater. Texting is also not allowed.

♦ Follow directions of the house managers and ushers who will be in the theater to help everyone get

seated quickly and quietly.

♦ Once the performance has started please remain quiet as a courtesy to our performers.

♦ Please respect yourself and the people around you.

♦ Showing appreciation at the end of the performance (or during if something makes you laugh) is always

encouraged!

CHAPERONES

♦ Assign each chaperone a designated group of students and provide him/her with a written list of the

students in that group.

♦ Provide I.D. nametags for students in grades K-3. We recommend using just the child’s first name along

with the name of the school.

♦ Ask chaperones to stay with their assigned group throughout the field trip. Adult chaperones are re-

sponsible for the students’ conduct and behavior throughout their visit to the Center.

♦ Please review theater etiquette rules and responsibilities with all chaperones.

Parking & Mesa Arts Center Map

PARKING and BUS INFORMATION:

PLEASE NOTE – We ask that buses arrive approximately one hour before the performance begins to allow

ample time to unload and seat students.

LOCATION: Downtown Mesa at One East Main Street. The southeast corner of Main and Center Street.

ARRIVAL: Enter the drop off area by coming in westbound on 1st

Avenue, then pull up to the curb (marked with

cones) and unload passengers. Proceed to theatre as directed by lot attendant. Buses will continue west to BUS

PARKING seen on map below.

DEPARTURE: Following the performance the audience will be released by school to meet their bus at the same

location they were dropped off.

Erth Visual & Physical Inc.

www.erth.com.au

BABY MINMIPARAVERTEBRA

Early Cretaceous: 110 –115 million years ago

Fossils of Minmi Paravertebra were first discovered near Roma, Queensland in 1964. In 1990 an almost complete specimen was

discovered on Marathon Station, Queensland.

A small armoured dinosaur (ankylosaur) that was a quadruped. This herbivore had horizontal plates of bones that ran along the sides of

its vertebrae called “scutes” and even the underside was protected by small bony scutes imbedded in the skin. Minmi grew to about 3 metres

long and was approximately 1-metre tall to the top of the shoulder.

BABY DRYOSAUROrder: Ornithischia Suborder: Ornithopoda Dryosaur means: “Oak Reptile” or Tree Lizard Late Jurassic: 145 –161 million years ago

Fossils have been found in the western United States, Tanzaniaand also in New Zealand. Dryosaurs were herbivores, using their hard beak to cut leaves and plants, and the Oak shaped teeth at the back of the mouth to grind them up. Dryosaurs had powerful back legs and was probably a fast runner. The stiff tail balanced the body while standing or moving. Dryosaurs grew to approximately 3 to 4 meters long.

TYRANNOSAURPronunciation: tye-RAN-uh-SAWR

Meaning: “tyrant lizard”

The Tyrannosaur is any of a group of predatory dinosaurs that lived from the late Jurassic Period (approx. 150 million years ago) to the latest

Cretaceous Period (about 65 million years ago), at which time they reached their greatest dominance.

Most were large predators with very large, high skulls of approximately 1 metre in length. They had up to 60 teeth - those of the juveniles being

serrated front and back and could easily bite through skulls, pelvises and limbs of other dinosaurs. A fossil found at Dinosaur Cove, Victoria in

1989 has led paleontologist Tom Rich to suggest that Tyrannosaurids were not only restricted to the northern hemisphere.

Erth Visual & Physical Inc.

www.erth.com.au

MEGANEURAPronunciation: meg-a-NEW-ra

Meganeura was a gigantic primitive dragonfly with a 70 cm wingspan. It flew to hunt flying insects above tropical forests and had swiveling multi-faceted eyes like headlamps which were quick to spot movement and sharp enough to allow it to pounce on flying prey.

DWARF ALLOSAURPronunciation: ALL-o-saw Meaning: “strange lizard’ on account of its light vertebrae

There are limited recordings of this animal in Australia. It appears to have been a more robust form of the giant Allosaurs of the northern hemisphere, thought to have adapted to survive in Australia after the Ice Age. The Dwarf Allosaur grew to about 6 metres in length and could probably rear to about 2.2 metres. It weighed just over half a tonne.

It was a general carnivore and scavenger. It was the largest predator in Gondwana. Existed in the early Cretaceous period (104 -112 million years ago).

LEPTICTIDIUMPronunciation: lep-tik-TID-ee-um

Meaning: “delicate weasel”

Leptictidium were mammals 50-40 million years ago. They survived through the Cretaceous period and the great

extinction of the large dinosaurs, but became extinct 40 million years ago. They lived in the Northern

Hemisphere, and possibly in the Southern hemisphere.

LEAELLYNASAURAPronunciation: lee-EL-in-a-SAW-rah

104 to112 million years agoPeriod: Early Cretaceous

The Leaellynasaura is one of many dinosaurs whose partial remains have been dug (and blasted) out of the solid rocks of Dinosaur Cove in the south east of Australia. Evidence

of Leaellynasaura is known from a well-preserved skull. This dinosaur was a small turkey sized herbivorous Ornithopod. In early Cretaceous times the residing areas of Australia

were well within the Antarctic Circle where the climate was extreme with limited sun visible for months of the year. Its skull has unusually large eye-sockets suggesting that Leaellynasaura adapted to the long winter darkness of the Antarctic and implies that it

could withstand low, perhaps even sub-zero, temperatures. To do this, it would have needed some way of generating body heat, which some people have taken as evidence

that dinosaurs were in fact warm-blooded.

Meganeura flew by beating 2 pairs of wings stiffened by “veins”. It dashed to and fro in forests, changing speed and direction almost instantly, grabbing insects with its legs and bringing them up to the mouth to feed. Meganeura itself were around in the late Carboniferous period (355-295 million years ago), but not in either the Jurassic or the Cretaceous period. However, there were still large dragonflies in both these periods. The present day dragonflies are descended from these.