Dinosaurs!

This year I've been focusing on some more exciting units. The first one was Dinosaurs, because what kid doesn't love dinosaurs? In the morning we read Dinosaurs Before Dark by Mary Pope Osbourne. I also gave the Kindergarteners their first research assignment for the year. They extracted dinosaur bones from some 'tar' and then examined the characteristics of the bones and looked for pictures of the dinosaur they thought the bones must have belonged to.

Pictured: Serious science.

Later the Kindergarteners showed some of the preschoolers how to properly excavate the bones that were sunk in the tar using the popsicle sticks. Adorableness ensued; seriously, those science googles were the best investment ever.

One of the books that we read in the afternoon with preschool was I'm BIG! Part of this book shows a dinosaur following footprints to find his friends. We used clay to make our own fossilized footprints. (Fossil was one of our super words - along with herbivore, carnivore, paleontologist, and extinct, because if you are going to expand vocabulary, you might as well do it right.)

Some students always make every project very serious.

Another day we read how paleontologists go into the field to dig up dinosaur bones before they bring them to a museum. First we went to our sandbox to see what we could find. After discovering the fossils they wrapped them up and brought them to the 'lab'.

As a wrap up to our dinosaurs unit we painted some nifty feet to stomp about in. I later used these pictures (along with one of their dinosaur face to make a class book. )

The text for the book is repetitive and even months later it is a total hit in our room.

Dino feet! Dino feet!

Roar! Roar! Roar!

Who did I meet?

(Turn page to see face...)

It's Bob Dinosaur!

I wrote that in a stroke of brilliance. Thank you.