Dinosaurs *BONES, BONES, DINOSAUR BONES by Byron Barton. Paleontologist Dig Pretend to be paleontologists and dig for dinosaur bones in the sandbox. (Use toothpicks/popsicle sticks/tongue depressors, etc.) *DINOSAUR SKELETON Use the "bones" that the children dug up and cleaned from the Paleontologist Dig and let the build free form skeletons or build within the precut shape of a dinosaur. *Related reading CURIOUS GEORGE AND THE DINOSAUR MRS. TOGGLE AND THE DINOSAUR by Robin Pulver THE BERENSTAIN BEARS AND THE MISSING DINOSAUR BONE DINOSAUR ENCORE by Patricia Mulli "Dazzle the Dinosaur" by Marcus Pfister "The Dinosaur Egg Mystery" by Val Biro "Dinosaur Babies" by Lucille Penner "Baby Stegosaurus" by Beth Spanjian * FOSSILS 1/4 cup of plaster of paris 1 Cup of Vermiculite (found at gardening center) 1/2 cup of water Measure and mix together. Put some in the bottom of a regular size paper cup. (fill about 1/4 full) Next they put in a small plastic or rubber dinosaur. Then the fun...the children bury their dinosaur completely...don't let any part of him remain uncovered!! Set aside for 2 days....this mixture will turn hard (if measured correctly). *We do dinosaur t shirts using sponges found in local craft stores, fabric paint. The children love them and always found wearing them *purchase small plastic dino skeletons...we bought ours through Oriental Trading Co. catalog....put them in the sand table with soft, small sized paint brushed and small shovels and magnifying glasses....pretend to be palentologists. To change the familiar texture of the sand table, wet the sand. Easier to make impressions this way and understand fossils. *make life sized dinosaur foot prints...see how many children will fit into it. *Make new name tags that read: Joey-o-saurus, or Sarah-o-don....just for fun. *vote for favorite dinosaur. Count the votes. In our preschool. We vote by clipping a clamp type clothes pins on a picture or word which we are voting for. Give a few choices. *Put out scraps of color paper and glue and dinosaur shaped pasta and have the children make a dinosaur scene or collage. *have a large selection of plastic dinosaurs in a pile. Have the children work out a way to put these dinosaurs into groups. for example: all the long tails or all the ones with spikes...etc. They can come up with great ideas. I love doing this with them. We always group then regroup....and try again... :-) *if your students are ready for some letter stuff...look at the dinosaur's names....talk about the letters...what are the beginning letters? what letters are in all the words? *sing: Colorful Dinosaurs (Tune: One Little, Two Little, Three Little Indians) {Have felt dinosaurs of the various colors to put on flannel board as you sing.} 1 red 1 blue 1 green dinosaur 1 orange 1 yellow 1 white dinosaur 1 pink 1 brown 1 black dinosaur 9 dinosaurs in all! Play around with this song and start taking away dinosaurs...ask..."Can you guess which dinosaur is gone?" "How many are left?" "Which one is the stegosaurs?" etc., etc. *One day we talked about dinosaur fossils and read about different kinds of dinos. I mixed seashells into plaster of paris and after nap we all went outside and they were able to chip away at the plaster of paris to find the shells. They loved it!! It took up the whole afternoon. I think next time we will discuss rocks and then let them find different kinds of rock in the plaster. *Delicious Dinosaur Eggs..... What you will need... 4 hard cooked eggs a small bowl 3 cups COOL water 1 envelope of unsweetened soft drink(brightly colored) Clear plastic wrap Step 1 Gently tap the shell over until the shells crack. Do NOT take the shell off Step 2 In a small bowl stir together water & soft drink mix. Add cracked eggs to the colored water Step 3 Cover the small bowl with plastic wrap. Place it in the refrigerator. Leave it in for 1-2 days. Remove the eggs and throw away the colored water. Peel the shells off the eggs. Your dinosaur eggs are ready to eat *Dinosaur Crowns Cut sponges into the shapes of tyrannosaurus dinosaur footprints. Fold paper towels in half and place them in shallow containers. Pour a small amount of brown tempera paint on top of each towel. Give the children crowns cut out of construction paper. Let the children cover their crown with dinasaur footprints by pressing the sponge stanps first into the paint and then onto their papers. When the paint has dried, write "tyrannosaurus (child's name) on the front of each crown. *THE DINOSAUR WHO COULDN'T ROAR by Jean Warren Once there was a dinosaur Who tried and tried, but couldn't roar! He would open up his mouth real wide, But all he found were giggles inside. He couldn't be mean, he couldn't be gruff He couldn't roar, he couldn't be tough. "I wish I could roar," the dinosaur said Every night as he went off to bed. And what do you know, one day he could roar, He roared all day till his throat was sore. But when he looked, he was all alone, No one had liked his roaring tone. Being tough wasn't much fun, If it meant you were the only one. So the next time the dinosaur went out to play he took his roar and threw it away. Then he opened up his mough real wide, And shared again the giggles inside. So, if you think you need to roar Just remember the dinosaur. It;s better to have a lot of fun, Than to be the only roaring one! *Dinosaurs Dinosaurs Lived long ago. Some walked (stomp in place) Some swam (pretend to swim) Some flew, you know! (flap arms at sides) Some were big (hold hands high) Some were small (hold hands low) Some were gigantic--(stretch arms out wide) V-e-r-y tall! (stretch arms up high) *Dino Skeleton A yearly favorite is to provide the children with an outline of a dino. We use T-rex. They glue on macaroni to resemble the dino skeleton. *Fossils: we use small paper plates and home made play dough. Give each child a small ball of dough and a paper plate. They should first flatten the dough (with their hand) on the plate. Next they should press a small plastic dinosaur into the dough to create an impression. Use dinos that really show up--stegasaurus, dimetrodon, etc. Be sure the children press the dinos in sideways so the imprint of the dino side will show--unless you just want footprints. *Sponge Painted Dinosaurs I usually cut a large mountain shape (rough outline) from easel paper. The children enjoy sponge painting dinosaurs on it. *Find Them Dino Bones! I have always buried small dinos in the sand table for them to find. This year I found a "bone" game (similar to pick up sticks) at a thrift store. I will add the "bones" to the sand too. *Dinosaur Egg Jigglers 2 1/2 cups boiling water 2 pkgs (8 oz serving size) of Lime flavored gelatin 1 cup cold milk 1 pkg (4oz serving size) vanilla flavor instand pudding mix 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon or cocoa Stir boiling water into gelatin in large bowl 3 min. or until completely dissolved. Cool 30 min. at room temperature. Meanwhile, prepare egg mold, use paper towel dipped in vegetable oil to lightly wipe inside of both sides of eggs mold and along rims. Close egg mold, matching up the rims of the egg halves Pour mil into med. bowl. Add pudding mix. Beat with wire whisk 1 min. Quickly pour into cooled gelatin. Stir with wire whisk until well blended. Pour gelatin-pudding mixture into measuring cup with pour spout. Immediately pur into eggs until each egg is filled to the top of the egg shape. Pour remaining mixture into 8 inch square pan. Refrigerate at least 3 hours or until firm. Open egg mold using a dull flat knife to gently pry between each egg. Turn egg mold over and shake gently to unmold eggs. Dip botton of 8 inch pan into warm water about 15 seconds. Cut into decorative shapes with cookie cutters all the way through gelatin. Lift from pan. Makes 6 eggs and about 12 Jigglers pieces. You can order Jell-o egg mold from : JELL-O JIGGLERS P.O. Box 1129 Maple Plain, MN 55593-1129 They cost $3 and each one makes 6 eggs. At easter they had them as a promo at Fred Meyer's and you got one free for every 2 pkgs of Jell-o you bought. They also sell Dinosaur cutters you get 4 for $3. *Pretend to be "paleontologists" (sp?)...and went dig for *dinosaur bones* in chocolate chip cookies...of course the chocolate chips are the "bones"...and then "chart" how many bones they find on a graph, and then eat the evidence...I thought it was cute..my son loved it... *we did a plaster cast of some dinosuaur mold that I found at a hobby store...and kids painted them *we put rice in a huge vat..and buried bones...and plastic eggs that i filled with small dinosaurs.... vyou can take trip to museum if they have an exhibt... *get one of those plastic models that you put together..and show it in skelton form *bury bones in flower beds and let kids dig for real... *find some shells......rocks with fossils...etc and talk about what they are... *make a form and layer the earth..let the kids color the layers, and then fill it in...let dry...in the middle of it put small chicken bones..etc...then they can see what comes of it..... *Dinosaur sponge art, stencils, Walmart has large dinosuar figures. *How about paper mache dinosaur eggs -- paper mache around a blown-up balloon? My next-door neighbor and her child made some of these for a home-school project -- very cute. *Up to this point, my day care has been geared toward the school-age crowd (I'm now in the process of converting to toddlers and preschoolers). Anyway, with the school-ager's, I've used my computer a lot. I have one CD-ROM that they all absolutely love - it is called Microsoft(R)Dinosaurs. It is interactive and verbal. It also has tours the kids can take, showing little videos, lots of pictures, and very real sounds. But there is a downfall to this program. It is very descriptive and must have adult supervision. Some of the videos show things like carnivores killing other dinosaurs. But if you look closely at the program and get to know it before you let the kids use it, you can pretty easily avoid many of these sights. It is a great program when it is used in an age-appropriate manner. I would not recommend it for preschoolers. *Theres a cute poem: "PACHYCEPHALOSAURUS(pak-i-sef-a-lo-saw-rus)" by Richard Armour and another "The steam shovel" by Rowena Bennett. They both appear in Sing A Song of Popcorn,1988 ; Scholastic Inc. *I know I can probably find more when I have a chance to look, but I get Dinosaur shaped Chicken nuggets from a food wholesaler that some of hte providers order from! They are really good chicken(tyson) and the kids think they are great too! *we took mural paper and cut it into two dino shapes big enough to cover a large table. The first day I left out dino shaped sponges; for the other dino I left out collage materials. Small dinosaurs on 8x11" paper were marble painted on a third day and when dried, mounted on colored construction paper egg shapes. Mounted on a wall; the eggs followed the "parent dinos" walking along. The next day we painted huge leaf shapes and the children painted gold metallic on three or four paper towel rollers. Mounted together on the wall, these made the dinosaur's three-dimensional dinosaur food. *Cute book: "If the Dinosaurs Came Back" by: Bernard Most *Game: Dinosaur Bone Hunt Cut out several kinds of "dinosaur bones" from cardboard. Hide bones inside or outside. Tell kids they are going to pretend to be "paleontologists", the scientists who study dinosuars. Paleontologists find bones from dinosaurs in the ground, and these bones are the things that have taught us about dinosaurs. Have the kids hunt to find the bones. *Show kids pictures of different dinosaurs and their skeletons. Some older kids can make dinosaurs out of clay. Tell kids the names of the dinosaurs too, having them repeat the name (pretty funny the way they come out, actually!) *You could use brown paper bags and make mountains. Just dampen the bags with water,(very little) then crumble or squeese and form mountains. Then let the kids put some paint on them. Use another for the land and then make some trees to glue on the land. Put the dinos on there and bravo a dino community. You could make a volcano also with the brown bags and paint. Put it all in a cut off cardboard box for a foundation. Or use shoe boxes and make individual small communities for each child.