Dinosaur Discovery

Dinosaurs and Playdough

This year quite a few children displayed an interest in dinosaurs. One JK boy in particular his parents had said on the first day of school that he loves anything with sharp teeth such as sharks and dinosaurs. I hadn't planned on bringing out the bin of dinosaurs we had hidden away in our cupboards but when this boy was hesitant to come into the classroom on his first day, I brought them out. He was instantly drawn to them and went right into the classroom to play. I added the dinosaurs to our" chicka-chicka boom boom" sensory bin, that then became our "dinosaur" bin.

Discovering Dinosaurs
After seeing how much the students enjoyed playing with our toy dinosaurs I displayed books about dinosaurs on our science table and in our reading area. The children learned a lot of facts about different dinosaurs and how some were meat-eaters and others ate plants.

Digging for "Bones"

After reading about paleontologists and what that big fancy word means and what they do, we did a fun activity by becoming paleontologists ourselves! The children each received a chocolate chip cookie and a toothpick so they could dig for "bones" and get the chocolate chips out of cookie.

Digging for Dinosaur Bones

In our sandbox we put small paintbrushes, scrapers, magnifying glasses, stones with dinosaur prints on them, and clay formations with dinosaurs hidden inside. The students could use the paintbrushes to delicately brush off the sand when they found a fossil and use the scrapers to dig for fossils hidden in the clay.

Dinosaurs, playdough, and loose parts.

Dinosaur Eggs

Each morning the children would excitedly come into the room to see if our dinosaur/reptile eggs had hatched. We had also made some predictions about what we thought the eggs would become as not all of the eggs were dinosaurs (we also had a snake inquiry going on). We had guesses such as; lizards, birds, chickens, and even humans!

"Dinosaur Land" made with recycled cardboard, water bottles, tissue paper, paint, shredded paper and rocks.

Dinosaur Imprints in Playdough

Building a dinosaur with fossils on the light table.

Making a Dinosaur Egg experiment

The ECE in the classroom made a dinosaur egg with the whole class. She simply used baking soda, water, and green food colouring to create the egg. She formed the egg around a tiny dinosaur and left it to dry over night. The next day the egg was dry and hard.

Finding the Hidden Dinosaur

The next day after the egg had dried we had the class get together as a whole to make predictions about what will happen when we spray the egg with vinegar. The children first smelt the vinegar to guess what liquid was going to be used. The children were so engaged in this science experiment and were amazed when the egg started to fizzle away to reveal the dinosaur hidden inside!

September Start

Observing Sunflowers

Sunflowers are so beautiful in September so I thought it would be interesting to bring some into the classroom and lay them out on the science table for the children to observe. I wasn't sure what container to put them in as they were so tall. When I simply lied them down on a tray it sparked conversations and a lot of questions from the children about flowers and the importance of water. The children drew the sunflowers as they saw them and then drew what they thought the flowers would look like if they were not put into a vase of water. Their oral predictions about what will happen to the flowers because they were not in water was also recorded.

Watching a Caterpillar

I had bought a pot of fall flowers for a co-worker and noticed a caterpillar on one of the flowers. I picked the flower with the caterpillar and put it in a small container on the morning sign-in table for the children to observe and look closely with the magnifying glasses.

Going on a Nature Walk

We are so lucky to have a lot of trees, grass, and an outdoor classroom with logs to discover on our school yard. The children love going on nature walks and collecting items to bring back into the classroom to observe and use as art materials.

Collecting nature items in brown bags.

The students are choosing which nature items they would like to use for their facial features on their self-portraits.

Creating a Self-portrait
The children would choose their nature items while I would hot glue it on to place for them. Some children were very detailed by adding flowers to their hair and even finding sticks that had a curve to represent a smile.

The letter "S" and Snakes

Our class was learning about the letter "S" this particular week and in one of our songs there is a snake. After we had learned the song together a few of the students were playing at the green flubber made by the ECE in the classroom that was at one of the discovery centres. We watched the children as they moulded their own snakes and then made little balls and putting them in ice cube trays. I asked one of the boys what they were making and he said, "baby snakes." This led to our first inquiry in our classroom! After that we set out some books on snakes at the science and discovery centre. The children were very interested to look at the books and to learn new information about snakes.

Snake Habitat

After reading different texts and watching some informational videos on snakes we learned about what a snake habitat consists of. We decided to create our own snake habitat with real nature items, label what was in the habitat, and place a rubber snake in it.

Playing with our "fake" class pet!

Worm Day in May!

Finding Worms
After reading about earth worms, watching videos, having class discussions on how to care for earth worms, we went on a worm hunt outside after a very rainy couple of days in May.

Digging for Worms

We put our earth worms in a bin of soil from outside and then we each guessed how many worms we thought our class had collected.

Taking pictures of the worms with the class camera.

We had a variety of earth worm activities for our children to explore during our worm day. We made our own playdough in the class the day before so the children could mold their own worms from it.

Measuring worms at the math centre using seashells as a tool.

Observational Paintings.

Are earth worms attracted to water or dirt? At the Science & Discovery table.

Gummy worm science experiment. Each child made a prediction about what they thought would happen to the gummy worm after it sat in a cup of water over the weekend.

On Monday we took our cups down and observed and made conclusions about our gummy worm science experiment. They used their five senses to make their observations.
Overall, worm day was a success! 

Paintbrushes Not Permitted!

 

Art is an area that I absolutely love! There are no boundaries with what materials and tools you can use to create magnificent art pieces. Often in our classroom, I will set out different materials and tools that the children can paint with, other than paint brushes. I don't tell the children what they are to paint. It is up to them what they want to create. Recently, I set out some dandelions in a cup with brown, green, yellow, and white paint, paintbrushes, and some cut up pieces of cardboard as their canvas. I told the children they could paint the dandelions. Some children actually painted a still life picture of the dandelions (that is what I had intended for them to do) while some actually started to paint the dandelions (too funny!). Even a few painted the dandelions and then made impressions on the paper with them. When the children started to do this, I almost went to stop them because my intent was not to actually paint the flowers themselves but to paint a picture of them!!! But then I realized how creative they were being and the art pieces they produced were all so unique and different!

Abstract Art with Toothpicks
 

Potato Prints

Using cotton balls to decorate an Easter egg. It was fascinating to see how some children would dab with the cotton ball to make circle designs and others would slide the cotton ball across to make lines.

Bubble Wrap Art Prints

Potato Mashers.
The kids enjoyed mixing the colours together to see what different colours they could make.

Toothbrush Art
This picture is so beautiful! I love the way her lines streak across the page and her choice of colours.

Using forks to create art pieces. This student chose to create flowers.

Sponge Art.
After this student was done her art piece she labelled it with what tool she used and then the whole class gathered around her so she could show it off and explain how she created it.

Paper Towel Art.
It was interesting to see what technique they would choose to do with the rolls. Some would roll them along the paper while others would use the ends to do circle imprints.

Q-Tip Art

Pinecones and Scrap Wood Pieces.

Discovering Sea Shells

Seashell Invitation to Play

I was so lucky last week when I happened to spot a box of these seashells sitting in the office. I asked the secretary what they were for and she said someone had donated them to the school and she was just about to send an email out to any teacher that wanted them. I felt like I had just won the lottery! Of course I scooped them up right then and there! We had already done an inquiry earlier in the year on the ocean. Although this would have come in handy then, I knew the children would be so intrigued and fascinated by these items during any time of the year. So up they went on the table as soon as they were brought down to the room. Treasure like this cannot be hidden for even a second!

Using their senses to explore the sea shells

Admiring the starfish

When the children were touching and feeling the sea life they would often make comments and ask questions about the holes that many of them had. Why are there holes? What could they have been for? They were especially intrigued by the sound of the ocean they heard coming from the hole of the big conch shells.

Using the magnifying glasses to observe the details on the shells 

Recording in their science journals
 

Many of the students drew a picture of the sea shell they were most fascinated by in their science journals and recorded the shell as either being smooth or rough feeling.  

Drawing of a sea horse and describing it as rough

Starfish on a mirror. Seeing them from a different perspective.

Stacking starfish

Noticing the various sizes of the shells.

Learning to be careful with the fragile shells.

 

 

Making a circle formation with the different shells.



 

The children were so curious about the various sea life that were displayed on the table in the classroom. Each and everyone one of them were engaged when it was their turn to come and explore the sea shell table. They had so many questions and observations about many of the shells. They loved just picking them up and feeling them. They would notice the texture and the beautiful colours. They would put the various conch shells up to their ears to listen to the ocean or would cover their face with the ones that were as big as their heads. Some students would stack them, make a display on the mirrors, or would pick their favourite ones to form a circle. Others would comment on the weight of the shell or would compare the characteristics of one shell to another. A few students surprised me when they would know the name of one that I wasn't even sure about. This discovery of sea shells was one that each child was excited about and where they were wanting to learn more about this natural life from the sea.