Tyrannosaurus was a beast : dinosaur poems

Perfect poems for those kids who love a mouthful of complicated dinosaur names. My favorites in the collection are "Tyrannosaurus," "Brachiosaurus," "Deinonychus," "Seismosaurus," "Allosaurus," and "Iguanodon."

I do have a soft spot for dinosaur anything. If your child is dinosaur focused, add in a sprinkle of these poems.

YMMV- there is a time line with millions of years.

Prelutsky, J., & Lobel, A. (1988). Tyrannosaurus was a Beast. New York, New York: Mulberry Books.

This is a collection of poems all involving dinosaurs. There are classic favorites like Tyrannosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Triceratops as well as lesser known dinosaurs like Quetzalcaotlus and Coelophysis. This book would be wonderful in the classroom to work on types of poetry and it has a multitude of amazing vocabulary words. The dinosaur names are tough, but the book offers the proper pronunciation for each one. You could bring in a poem or two at a time into the classroom, or introduce the whole book. The language is difficult, but children even as young as kindergarten would enjoy it. I would suggest this book as an adult read aloud book. show more As one of Jack Prelutsky’s slightly lesser known books, it has not won any major awards, but he has won many for his previous books. show less

This book is a book of poems about dinosaurs. Each page has a poem about a different dinosaur and each poem tells about the characteristics of that particular dinosaur.

I thought this book was very cute and interesting. I am not a person who cares much to learn about dinosaurs or read poetry, but this is a cute book and an interesting way to grab a youngsters attention and learn not only about dinosaurs but also about words that rhyme.

One classroom extension I would use would be for the kids to pick out the rhyming words in each poem that make the poem a poem. Another classroom extension would be for the children to write a poem about their own characteristics.

Illustrated page of a dinosaur and opposing page with poem. Poetry rhythm reflects dinosaur characteristics. Great read aloud.

Tyrannosaurus Was a Beast is a book with poems about different kinds of dinosaurs. Each poem tells about what the dinosaur did, ate and looked like. There are illustrations that do the same.

Each dinosaur is also described by what their name means.

In the beginning of the book there is information about where the dinosaur lived, how large it was and when it lived.

This book would be good for young children who are interested in dinosaurs and want to know more.

Dinosaur names are tricky to pronounce...luckily my kitten audience cannot judge or correct me.