Thursday, September 29, 2011

Dinosaur (Name) Dig

After all of the Dinosaurs Died,
The paleontologists dug up their bones.
After learning about extinction,
we made letters look like dinosaur bones.

I was inspired by Dr. Deborah Stewart,
Who used index cards and colored rice
and had her students uncover their names.


I wanted to adapt this idea to our dinosaur theme.
First we made cookie dough and cut out a bunch of letters.
(And I wanted to make it edible!)
We have alphabet cookie cutters,
we also cut out dinosaur shapes as well.

Then we cooked it, let it cool,
and buried it in brown sugar.
(It looks just like sand.)
Then she used my pastry brush to discover
the letters in her name.

It took her awhile because the sugar doesn't move easily.
We were able to talk about how paleontologists
have to be so careful when they dig up dinosaur bones.
It was so delightful to watch her "dig" up a letter,
And work at it until she could see what it was.

Brown sugar was the key to this activity!
It make it last longer,
and turned it into a discovery.
You could use magnetic letters, cookie letters, sandpaper letters,
or words written on an index card.


2 comments:

  1. I am in love with this idea! What a great snack time activity! I would have never thought of doing it like this!

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  2. Great idea! I am doing a dinosaur theme next week and I am definitely going to do a letter name dig!

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Thanks for your great comments!