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!