Storybooks · Grades 1 and 2
The Longest Neck
The old door is waiting at the back of the museum.
- For Grades 1 and 2
- 3 endings
Ways to do it
- On their own, with their Pet
- With a grown-up beside them
- With someone far away, on a call
Also in العربية
For grown-ups
Back through the museum door to a Jurassic forest, where the wind takes your child's cap and only the right dinosaur can reach it.
What your child practises
- Taller, longer and higher: they are not the same thing
- How Stegosaurus, Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus each ate
- Working something out from a clue
- Keeping still while something very big walks by
Listen for
Your child saying the longest dinosaur was not the tallest, or why the Brachiosaurus could reach.
Your part
- Ask the tip on each page, and wait for an answer
- When your child picks a dinosaur, ask why that one
Take it off the screen
Who in your home can reach the top shelf, and who fits under the table? Everyone is built for something.
Where the facts come from
After the book
The Fossil Door
Book 2 in this series
- Book 1: The Runaway Egg
- Book 2: The Longest Neck (this book)
- Book 3: Three Horns and a Frill
How it begins
The old door is waiting at the back of the museum. "Ready for another trip, your child's name?" asks Dr. Okafor. She turns the big brass key. Clunk. "Three rules," she says. "Head home at the third bell. One true thing. And never touch a dinosaur."
Click, click, click. The dial turns. Their Pet jumps up and down. "Jurassic! Jurassic!" The dial stops. It says Jurassic. Their Pet does a victory dance, round and round. "Right at last," laughs Dr. Okafor. "About one hundred and fifty million years ago."
Your child's name steps through the door into warm, dry air. Long ago, this place was a wide valley full of ferns and very tall trees. Their spiky tops spread out like umbrellas, high in the sky. "Those trees are taller than the museum," whispers their Pet.
Zzzip! A dragonfly hovers over the ferns, its wings shining green. "Not a dinosaur," says your child's name. "Just a dragonfly." "Dragonflies had relatives flying long before the dinosaurs," calls Dr. Okafor through the door. Their Pet tries to hover too, and lands in the ferns.
Whoosh! A big gust of wind comes down the valley. It lifts the cap right off your child's name's head. Up, up, up it goes, and lands on the very top of the tallest tree. "My cap!" says your child's name. "It's much too high to climb."
Thump. Thump. THUMP. The ground shakes. The ferns tremble. Something is coming through the trees. Something taller than the museum. "Where should we go?" asks their Pet, very quietly.
Your child chooses what happens next
Behind the rock
Up on the log