Activity Worksheets

A dual letter hunt sheet is available at the museum entrance, with clipboards and pencils to borrow. Letters are hidden in cases and on displays. Two levels are used - a red trail and a yellow trail, with the red trail being easier. Once found, the letters can be organized to spell the names of two creatures in our museum. An answer sheet is kept in the shop, so pupils can check if they have all of the letters and the correct words. The sheet changes each year, and usually contains a link to the current summer exhibition.

Two sheets can be used towards the end of a gallery visit to locate and draw two or three favourite things.  Room has been provided for writing something about each object. These can be downloaded from our Useful information webpage, or collected at the museum entrance.

We have produced an activity worksheet which is aimed at children who are at Key Stage 2/3 level. It provides a means of focussing attention on the displays, whilst also making it fun to find the answers.

The sheet is provided free of charge to visiting schools (and the public) as an A4 double-sided sheet, or can be downloaded as an Acrobat file from the Useful information page. Clipboards and pencils are available to borrow; to be returned at the end of the visit.

Side 1 of the sheet focuses on the first exhibition, which deals with the Island's geology and fossils from the time of the last Ice-Age to the time of the dinosaurs. Questions are themed and based on specific display cases and poster panels. The title of each theme is the name of a display case or wall panel. The sheet progresses through the exhibition, although groups of children may wish to tackle cases out-of-sequence.

Side 2 is completed within the second exhibition. It does not follow a sequence, individual themes may focus on a particular specimen, whilst others may require the pupil to examine a number of displays to complete the task.

In order to cope with a range of ability the tasks vary in difficulty, and includes some drawing. All children should be able to complete most of the sheet. Some younger children may find it easier to work in pairs with a shared activity sheet. For the small number of pupils who can finish the sheet quickly a popular "Word Search" sheet is also available. The Word Search is available as an Acrobat pdf file on the Useful information page of our website.

A European CLIL worksheet (produced in April 2010) is now available from the Useful information page of our website. The Content & Language Integrated Learning worksheet was produced by Yvette Minassian, CLIL teacher at Institut Sainte-Julie in Belgium for an April 2010 visit. It is suitable for CLIL students in their second year (lower secondary / 8th grade). An answer sheet is also provided for download. (Suitable for ages 13 - 14).