Exploring the World of Dinosaurs

The preschoolers have been engaging in lots of fun, hands-on dino explorations. Come and check it out!

Digging for Fossils

The children were so excited to pick out and bury chicken bones in a sand and plaster of paris mixture, but that didn’t compare to the fun we had chiseling them out of the rock. Together, the children carefully used tools to learn about one of the most important parts of being a paleontologist--digging and cleaning off fossils, of course!

...and that’s only the beginning!

It’s so exciting when a paleontologist finds a dinosaur fossil, but that’s only the start of the exploration. Once fossils are excavated, they need to be put together like a puzzle to learn about the dinosaur that’s been found. So that’s what our paleontologists did, too. As a team, we pieced together the skeletons of a miniature triceratops, apatosaurus, and stegosaurus.

Sizing Up These “Terrible Lizards”

Using an overhead projector, we took some pictures of dinosaurs and adjusted the sizes until the pictures matched the children’s guesses of these reptiles’ real-life proportions. Then we made the dinosaurs the actual sizes so we could compare our guesses to the real thing. It was so fun to see that the children were all taller than some fully grown dinosaurs, and it was amazing to look up at the face of a tyrannosaurus rex--on the ceiling of the gym!

Bringing It All Home

One of the most wonderful things about teaching is hearing from families how students bring classroom learning home. Lorelai's family says she's been talking a lot about what "extinct" means. Hudson told his parents that the trilobite went extinct before the dinosaurs even existed. Sami's mom was excited to hear him telling his family that dinosaurs weren't the first living things on Earth; rather, blue-green algae was. Wow! If you have stories of the learning your preschoolers are sharing with you, please let us know! 

Next up: Tracks

The children will learn how to identify creatures using their footprints. How? We’ll start with our very own “preschool creatures” making and matching their own tracks! Stay tuned...

Preschool Paleontologists Begin Dino Studies

The preschoolers have identified “dinosaurs” as the topic they are most interested in studying, and so we are quickly becoming serious paleontologists! 

Beginning the Learning Process

An important part of learning something new is reflecting on what we already know and what we want to learn more about. Here are some of the children’s ideas:  

“I know dinosaurs eat meat.” -Ozzy.
“Sometimes they eat trees.” -Natalia
“They’re loud!”  -Ololara
“And they’re big!” -Sean
“Dinosaurs are here, just somewhere in the lava. And they’re dead.” -J.R.
“Dinosaurs live in the wild.” -Lorelai
“Yeah, but they died a long time ago,” Ozzy
“Dinosaurs have sharp teeth to eat with.” -Chaendra
“They’re extincted and they’re not alive!” -Sami

Great information to begin with, paleontologists! Any questions?

“How did dinosaurs fight?” -Harper
“What are fossils?” -Lorelai
“Are they lizards? ‘Cause they kind of look like ‘em. And do they have spikes on their backs?” -Eliah

Getting Started

We’ve been making dino art, making dino bones and digging for them, making up dino stories, and of course, having lots of dino-themed pretend play. We’ve also been reading a lot of dinosaur books, and the children have been bookmarking the pages they find especially interesting. This has led to a lot of interesting discussion.

What does “extinct” mean?

“It means that, like, you can’t see them anymore. They’re not alive.” -Hudson
“It means that you can never see them anymore, because they’re extinct. All of ‘em.” -Ololara 
“When people die, it’s different, because more people can come alive. We can still make babies, so when people die, people can still keep going and we’re not extinct. We can keep on making houses and keep on living. But dinosaurs can’t.” -Harper

Dino Time Line

We’ve started a time line, showing the first living things on earth, and the kids have been matching picture cards to the timeline. From this, we’ve learned that dinosaurs were not the first living things on earth, and that they weren’t even the first things to become extinct. Do you you want to know what was? Ask a preschooler! You’ll be surprised how much they know!

Next stop: Learning About Fossils!

This week, we’re fossilizing chicken bones in an mixture of sand and plaster of paris. Then we’ll dig them out!

Our December Adventures

Soothing Sensory Activities for the Holiday Sillies

The children have enjoyed some calming sensory activities to lead us into the exciting holiday season. Together, we made play dough incorporating spices such as cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. We accessed their role-play and emerging literacy skills by reading a recipe to make the dough. Squishing, rolling, flattening, and cutting the dough is great exercise for little fingers while the feeling of warmth, smoothness, and squishiness is very soothing. The added scents of the season made this activity even more appealing for the little ones. Here is the recipe--our gift to you--for something fun to do during this long break from school!

2 cups flour
2 Tbs vegetable oil
1/2 cup salt
2Tbs cream of tartar
up to 1 1/2 cups of boiling water (adding--by adults, of course--in increments until it feels just right)

1 Tbs of any spice, herb, or tea for added scent/texture (optional)

A few drops of food coloring, if desired

• Mix the flour, salt, cream of tartar and oil in a large mixing bowl
• Add any spices, herbs, or tea leaves desired
• Have an adult add the boiling water 
• Stir continuously until it becomes a sticky, combined dough
• Add food coloring if desired
• Allow it to cool down then take it out of the bowl and knead it vigorously for a couple of minutes until all of the stickiness has gone. * This is the most important part of the process, so keep at it until it’s the perfect consistency!*
• (If it remains a little sticky then add a touch more flour until just right)

The children have also been completely engrossed with shaping putty in the classroom and distributing amongst the depressions in an egg carton. This recipe is easy and it's fun to watch it take shape.

2 oz glue all

2 oz water

1 tsp borax

1/2 cup water

• Mix together the glue and water.
• Dissolve borax into 1/2 cup of warm water. (I shook them in a ziplock bag.)
• Mix the borax water into the glue water.
• Pick up the glue glob and squish it around for a few minutes. It will turn into a firm, yet pliable silly putty-like substance. Enjoy!

Snow Play

Thank you for remembering to send your child in with snow pants, hats, mittens, winter coats, and boots. The kids have had a great time playing on our "snow mountain"--take a look!

Spin Art

For Ozzy's "All About Me" day, his family taught the preschoolers how to make spin art using a special tool they created using a box fan. The kids were mesmerized with the process and thrilled with the products! Thank you, Wolavers!

Gingerbread Adventures

The preschoolers have learned the story of "The Gingerbread Man" very well, and they have created lots of beautiful paper gingerbread people to go along with the story. All was fun and games until this week, when something mysterious occurred. Ms. Nettie asked Ololara to bring the tray of gingerbread people to circle time so the kids could add the finishing touches, but to Ololara's surprise, they were missing! In their place was a note with a riddle on it. It read:

Run, run as fast as you can

You can’t catch us, we’re the gingerbread clan!

We’ve had a fun time playing in the preschool

But we heard there are other rooms here that are cool.

So we’re going exploring around Pelham School

First stop’s to see Alex, Sam, Rowan, Ben, and Ms. Jacque, too!

Using their detective skills and love for adventure, the children decided the only thing to do was visit the kindergarten to see if they had seen our sneaky gingerbread people. When we got their, Ms. Jacque assured us she had not seen them. However, she had found a strange riddle on her desk, too. She read it to us.

Kindergarten is a wonderful place--

These teachers put a smile on everyone’s face!

The children here love their books

And are getting quite good at reading, it looks.

Which reminds us: where else could we find some very

Exciting stories and books--THE LIBRARY!

We wasted no time in getting to the library, where we found Ms. Booth and Ms. Golden, our friendly librarians, working hard at the circulation desk. "Have you smelled any cookies? Paper cookies?" inquired Eliah. Ms. Booth reported that indeed she had, and she may or may not have seen some crumbs lying about. She then revealed a note that she found in the stacks. 

Books for pretend stories! Books for fun facts!

In the library, we could read books by the sack!

Ms. Booth and Ms. Golden have made us quite smart

Reading books about animals, planets, and art.

Now we’re ready to visit and spend time today 

With Ms. Scott, Nurse Katy, and Ms. Desjarlais! 

Immediately, the children knew what they had to do, and it was off to the office! Mrs. Scott, Ms. Desjarlais, and Nurse Katy listened intently to the situation at hand, and then allowed the children to go searching in the office for these cookie characters. We didn't see the actual cookies, but the children found--you guessed it--yet another note. This one said: 

In the office, there’s so much work that is done. 

Nurse Katy cares for kids that fall when they run

Mrs. Scott ensures school’s running well in all features

While Ms. Desjarlais helps kids, parents, and teachers

To do all their jobs and work well together

Whatever the season, whatever the weather.

And working together reminds us of friends

That visit each week, reading books ‘till “the end”

These big kids have seen our room quite a bit

But we’re curious to go and pay them a visit

What does it look like, where to they study?

Let’s go take a walk to see our Reading Buddies!

Excitedly, we dashed to the fourth grade, where Hudson and Harper explained the situation to our Reading Buddies. Mr. Shaw encouraged the children to check their classroom, and to our surprise, the gingerbread people were hiding all over the room! Carefully, the kids gathered them all and met with their buddies to read some stories while we were there. Whew! The gingerbread people never got away again, but be sure to watch them closely at home, folks. They may have stubby little gingery legs, but our little paper pals are fast!

This Little Light of Mine

In honor of the holiday season, the children have been taking note off all the different ways people use light to celebrate during the winter months. Some light the candles on a menorah for Hanukkah, others a wreath or Christmas tree, still others a kinara for Kwanzaa, and the list goes on. We brought our celebration to the kindergarten where we lit luminaries and taught our five- and six-year-old friends to sing a song that we'd been working on: This Little Light of Mine.  You can listen to it here. Enjoy!

Cookies and Cocoa for Our Last Day 

On our last day before winter break, we baked and decorated our own gingerbread people, and then played in the snow. When we came in from the winter weather, we hunkered down with a book and some hot cocoa--but before we did, we took a survey to see who wanted marshmallows in their cocoa and who didn't. This activity included name writing, counting, and comparing quantities. After these important details were worked out, we sipped and settled down to a quickly paraphrased and beautifully illustrated version of Dickens's A Christmas Carol.