Welcome to the exciting world of W. Howard Stuart's T-Rex, where the modern world collides with the awesome power of the Earth's ancient past. This guide has been designed to help you and your students get the most out of these thrilling books. Not only are these books wonderful adventure stories that will appeal to the most reluctant reader, they also provide excellent opportunities to introduce your class to topics ranging from science to poetry, and everything in-between. This teaching guide has been structured to give you, the teacher, a wide range of activities to choose from. Many are quite simple and require nothing more than ordinary classroom materials. Some are more complex, and would make excellent long-term projects for your class.


Since your classroom time is valuable and limited, we have attempted to make this guide as user-friendly as possible. Each section begins with a vocabulary list in order to help you pre-teach any words that may be unfamiliar to your students. The Closer Look section pinpoints topics that are mentioned in the story which you may want to help you students delve into more deeply. For these topics, you may wish to utilize Internet access if possible, or take a trip to the school library. Otherwise, a good set of encyclopedias will be all your students need to research these subjects. In order to ensure that your students understand the material, we have included a short Comprehension Quiz after each Closer Look. The Group Discussion questions offer your students a chance to participate in a thoughtful conversation about questions raised by the story. These questions can also be used to springboard into the next section. Related Topics and Teamwork Time appear periodically throughout the guide. Related Topics offer reproducible pages to explore various subjects, and suggest creative ideas to help students learn to think imaginatively. Finally, it's time to have some fun with Teamwork Time. These activities are designed to be completed over a longer period of time, and give kids the chance to work in a group and solve problems together. At the end of the guide, you will find the Log On, Look It Up, Learn More section. We have listed Internet sights and books that will help your class explore even further.


With so much information available, it can be a daunting task to try to refine it to fit into your class time and be usable within the confines of your classroom. It is our hope that this guide will aid you in doing exactly that. As you incorporate these activities into your curriculum, you will find that your students will become more and more curious, and eager to expand their knowledge. They will begin to connect the ideas and topics of T-Rex to the world around them. You may also find that they begin to suggest their own activities based on the books. We have designed this book to help you plan a lesson that is both educational and fun for your students, and for you. Using this guide, you will be able to enjoy a class that is filled with kids who are excited about discovery. Now, get ready to explore! Join Nathan, Heather Ann, and their friends, as they test their courage and take on villains, with a little help from Rex.