The Dinosaur Who Lived in My Backyard by B. G. Hennessy

Prompts
Use the following questions after the second or third reading of The Dinosaur Who Lived in My Backyard. There are questions for every one or two pages of the story.

1. Do the boy and the dinosaur live at the same time and the same place? (The boy and the dinosaur live at the same place, but not at the same time.)
2. How big was the egg that the dinosaur hatched from? (It was as big as a basketball.)
3. What do the children have in their backyard? (They have swings, a slide, trees, a birdbath, flowers, and a fence.)
4. What does this picture show? (It shows that the dinosaur is as big as a car.)
5. How big were the dinosaur's feet? (One foot was larger than the sandbox.)
6. What is happening in this picture? (The boy is eating lima beans, but the girl is feeding her lima beans to the dog.)
7. What does this picture show? (It shows that the dinosaur ate lots of lima beans.)
8. How big is the dinosaur now? (He's as big as twenty pick-up trucks.)
9. Why are the children falling down? (The dinosaur was so heavy that he would have made the neighborhood shake if he jumped.)
10. How big is the dinosaur now? (He is bigger than the school bus and the house.)
11. Have you ever seen pictures of dinosaurs? Which ones have you seen before? What dinosaurs can you name?
12. What are the dinosaurs doing in this picture? (They are playing hide-and-seek.)
13. How many dinosaurs can you find in this picture? (There are eight dinosaurs.)
14. What is happening in this picture? (A big fierce dinosaur is chasing two smaller ones.)
15. Where did the dinosaur sleep? (He slept outside.)
16. What did the boy's town look like when the dinosaur lived there? (It was a swamp with lots of water and plants.)
17. What does the boy wish the dinosaur could do for him? (He wishes the dinosaur could rescue his kite.)
18. What is the boy thinking about in this picture? (He is thinking about how nice it would be if the dinosaur still lived in his backyard.)
19. What would the children feed the dinosaur if he came back? (They would give him all their lima beans!)

Vocabulary

The words listed below come from the story and its pictures. As you page through the book, ask the children to name the objects listed or talk about the actions portrayed. Words are listed for every two pages of story. Ask about other objects and actions shown in the pictures as you see fit.

• swing set, dinosaur, trees
• hatching, egg, slide, birdbath, woodpecker, swimming pool
• birthday cake, license plate, bumper, suitcase
• footprints, pails, shovels, sandbox
• lima beans, tablecloth, eating
• scooters, shaking, jumping, falling down
• school bus, house, fence
• Triceratops, island, horns
• hiding
• Tyrannosaurus Rex, chasing, shadow, teeth
• sleeping, tent, flashlight, moon, stars
• sprinkler, swamp, plants
• leaves, kite, birds, barking
• wishing
• bushel basket, wagon