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,

over at Teach Preschool

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.



Dino Days

We couldn't learn about reptiles,

and not learn about Dinosaurs!

We started out by learning how Dinosaurs com from eggs.

We read Dinosaur Babies.

It is great because it shows how the dinosaurs come from eggs.

We then got out our paper mache,

and balloons,

We made our own dinosaur eggs.

She didn't actually love getting her fingers messy,

so I had to finish making her egg.

We let them dry,

And secretly I put some of our dinosaurs inside.

Then I patched up the hole with paper mache.

Then she pretended she was a mama dinosaur,

and I was the predator.

She went and hid her eggs in the sand.

Then she pretended that they hatched,
so she could see what was inside.

Then she played in the sandbox by herself for a while.
(Isn't alone playing time the best?)

Here are the other Dinosaur Books we are reading this week:

First Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Pre-historic life.

The title is a little long and boring,
but this book rocks!
It is full of facts and right on a preschoolers level.

Ten Little Dinosaurs
(with the wiggly eyes)

This book is really fun,
if you can get past pronouncing all of the names.
It is good for talking about how dinos became extinct.

No T-Rex in the Library

is nonfiction, but really fun to realize
how huge dinosaurs really were.

Dinosaur Roar!

Is really great for little boys
aka Baby H.
All of the dinosaurs dance and walk,
and most of the words in the book are different sounds a dinosaur makes.

Reptile Watching and Weekly Wrap-up

After we learned how reptiles are cold blooded,

they have leathery skin, and they hatch from an egg,

We went to the zoo to check them out.

We go to the zoo often,

So it's been fun to learn about different types of animals.

Now every time we go, we focus on one area.

We also brought Miss Sassy's Great-Grandma.

She pointed out so many fun and different things as well!

It was so fun to notice all of the heat lamps,

and how the reptiles moved.

We spent ages looking at the lizards, snakes, and turtles.

In fact, it was the only thing she even cared about.

It was a fun trip and a great way to make a memory.

Here are some other awesome reptile ideas:

The first is from My Creative Family
She created a Pond in a box

I love this idea, it is essentially a sensory box that can be put back into a shoebox.
Fun, imaginative, not messy!

The next is from Kelly at Here Comes the Sun.
She did a whole Alligator learning theme.

You can see her daughter made an alligator
out of a clothes pin.
She linked it to literature and math by singing:
5 Little Monkeys Swinging on a Tree,
Teasing Mr. Alligator, Can't Catch me!

The last idea comes from Lines Across My Face
She created Chameleon Pipe Cleaner Animals.

She read A Color All His Own,
and made several different color chameleons.
She shows you exactly how to make these cool guys.

Here are some other ideas I found on the blogs I follow,
and I pinterest.

Turtle Sculpture

We wanted to make our turtle come to life,

So we made it out of cookie dough.

I like to make things edible.

So I made the cookie dough without eggs.

This is like play dough you can eat.

I was inspired my a decoration at my aunt's house.

I thought we could do that with play dough and rocks,

But then, why not sugar dough and jellybeans?

It was good for Miss S. to sculpt the turtle,

It's surprising that she didn't really know where everything went.

I explained that the turtle shell protects his body,

And the jelly beans showed the turtle's hard shell.

Then we painted it green with

green food coloring mixed with milk.

It was fun and delicious,

oh and educational.

We also read our Chameleons book,

Which was really cool.

Chameleons can point their eyes two different directions,

Wrap their feet all the way around a branch,

Catch flies with their EXTREMELY long tongue,

Fight, and the loser turns dark green.

And change colors, get spots, or stripes.

To help solidify her knowledge,

We also painted a Chameleon colors.

I sculpted it, and she painted it.

But too bad for me,

I didn't clean up fast enough.

:)

I love little boys!



Swimming Sea Turtles

We are moving on to the world of Reptiles!

We started by learning about turtles.

And their life cycle...

We loved the book One Tiny Turtle

By Nicola Davies

It shows beautifully how a sea turtle lives,

and eventually lays her eggs in the sand.

It's great because it doesn't start at the "beginning".

So it's perfect way to learn a life cycle differently.

We decided to make sequencing cards to learn

about the sea turtles life cycle.

We started by painting glue on for our sand.

I love how Baby H. helps out lately.

We did an egg mosaic for the turtles egg,

And did tear art for the grown turtle.

Although it is a fairly simply project,

I had to work really hard to keep her attention to the end.

I promised her she could dance afterwards.

Here she is pretending to be a turtle in an egg,

She danced while I clapped my hands

and sang about a turtle growing up.

Later she pretended to hide the turtle eggs in the sand.

Dancing is a fun way to reinforce concepts,

and it works for preschoolers through sixth graders.

Here are the reptile books we are reading this week:

The Mixed-Up Chameleons

Chameleon's Colors

Fun Facts about Turtles

Franklin Goes to the Hospital