Squawkzilla is a giant parrot that lived in New Zealand 19 million years ago. Its bones were dug up in 2008, but it was not correctly identified for another ten years. This article tells the story of Squawkzilla’s discovery. It demonstrates how scientists work and how it is possible to make educated guesses about what life used to look like millions of years ago. It shows that scientific “discoveries” often take time and require careful observation and teamwork.

This pack contains wide range of response activities including:

• A guided reading plan exploring key literacy elements including inference and deduction, language use, making connection and text organisation, along with key questioning to promote emotional intelligence, metacognition and compassionate inquiry. 
• An independent learning contract complete with explainer videos for activity clarity
  
• A wide range of response activities to support developing and embedding key literacy skills including sentence and word work, spelling, and cloze activities.