#1222. 'Dinosaur Day'

Re: Ideas needed for 'Dinosaur Day' VERY LONG
Posted by Sandy/K/MO, , on 7/11/99
Using aluim. foil and pipe cleaners they designed their own dino. :-)
Have them make clay and then they can either do fossil or dino.
Fossil.... have them use something to break it open... I had paint brushes for them to
use too.
Using bisquits (refrig) I have them make a dino bone then bake and eat.
Cut out bone shape in a sponge and place in sand. Pour salt water over the sponge,
check progress for a couple of days.
Make dino mobiles of the flying dino's. some things I have collected from other
places and people.
Dinosaur Ideas #1
Use clay to make dinosaur teeth necklaces (like shark tooth necklaces).
Add paint if desired. String and wear your necklaces! At circle, before
we did this, I made a "jaw-shape" (oval) about 6-8 feet long. We sat
around the edge of the jaw. After revealing that this was about the size
of a T-Rex's jaw, we estimated how many of us would fit into the jaws,
then we recorded our findings, making a couple of tries to make sure
everyone had a turn.
Make tin can stilts so you can stomp around like a dinosaur.
Do the "Dino-Pokey" (same tune as Hokey-Pokey, just change words (from
Mailbox magazine)
claws in/claws out/scratch 'em all about feet in/feet out/stomp them all
about
teeth in/teeth out/chomp them all about
tail in/tail out/wag it all about
COOKING:
Take hard boiled eggs and crack lightly all over, but do not peel. Have
each child fill up a cup with enough water to be able to cover the egg.
Let them choose a color to add (with food color) to their water. Place
the egg in the cup and let sit for several hours (we let ours sit from
abotu 10 until 3). Not really a dino activity, but fun to eat for snack
when talking
about dinosaur eggs.
Ice Cream cone volcano dioramas - give each child a bowl, have them
scoop some chocolate pudding in (at least enough to cover the bottom of
the bowl). Give each child a sugar cone and have them break of just the
tip and place upside down on the pudding. Using a spoon, have them
drizzle red/orange/yellow icing down thecone. Add green coconut for
grass, gummi dinosaurs and malted milk ball "rocks". We had a sample
done ahead of time. Yum!
Dinosaur Measurement Math Grade Level (K-1) by Wendy Guzak
Objectives:
1. To give students a concrete example of the size of the
Brontosaurus (now known as Apatasaurus) (65 feet), Tyrannosaurus Rex (47
feet), Deinonychus (10 feet), Triceratops (20 feet) and the Stegosaurus
(26 feet). 2. To give students practice with estimating.
3. To give students practice counting objects and recording the
results. Materials:
1. Paper strips (1 foot long each)
2. Information about each of the above mentioned dinosaurs
3. Poster to fill out with information that we find
4. Books to be used for background information (See Bibliography)
5. Scientists (or students)

Procedure:
1. Discuss background information with center group about their
dinosaur. Use books during center time to help with this information.
2. Have children count out how many paper strips they will need.
For example, the T-Rex will need 25 strips. 3. Take center group
out in the hall, and let children lie pieces on floor, end to end.
4. Discuss with the children how big the dinosaur truly was.
5. Ask children to estimate how many children's bodies it would
take to equal the one dinosaur. (If the children were laid out on the
floor head to toe, head to toe). 6. Record guesses on poster.
7. Lie children on the ground, head to toe, and find the true
answer. (This may require more children than are in the center group, so
children from inside the room will be asked to come out into the hall.)
8. Discuss results with the center group.
9. Repeat with next center group using a new dinosaur.
Evaluation:
1. Do the students better understand how big a dinosaur really
was?. Can they communicate this information to other students? 2.
They should be able to estimate size better than when they started.
3. Did the students count both the number of paper strips, and
the number of children correctly? Did they record the numbers correctly.
Reflection & Extension:
I had a very difficult time getting the children to cooperate with me
during the body measurement section of this lesson. If I do this lesson
again, I need to think of a new way to work this. An extension to this
lesson that I spontaneously created was to have the children report to
the rest of their classmates about their dinosaur. The children really
enjoyed this activity. Turn your sand box into an excavatiion site? Ask
your butcher for some large bones. Soak them for a day or two in bleach
water to disinfect. and then boil in water til clean. put then in the
dand box and have the kids find them.
sue
Create a fossil hunt in the sandtray or
not.You can give the children little trowels and they can even wear
gloves and be Paleantologists (sp?)Sand can be damp.You can put things
in to throw them off, like rocks,shells,etc...I learned about this from
Lawrence Hall of Science, in Berkeley,ca.,where I live....Also,you can
hide plastic Dinosaurs of all kinds in playdough...I have two identical
dinos of each kind, so as they interact and discover, the children
observe differences and similarities..Lindy Wee Sing has a book of
Dinosaur songs.
Melodie.k.ca
One of our fav. is puttin a small toy dino in a balloon, blowing it up,
and cover it with paper mache. After it is dry, we painted them
different bright colors, decorated them with spots, stripes, etc than we
made a dino nest for the eggs. We blew up a plastic kiddie pool, covered
it with brown butcher paper and added raffia on the bottom and hanging
over the edges, than added our eggs. We had them on display for open
house; all 19 got to make one. After awhile we cracked them open and
everyone had a baby dino to take home.
We cut out dino eggs shapes from brown paper bags and sponge painted the
bags. Then we cut out a white "inside" the same size and the kids
colored baby dinos inside. Made T-rex head puppets - with a moveable
jaw - and cut triangles for teeth and attached the teeth. We painted
"long necks" made from paper plates. We hunted for dino bones in the
sand table - dog bones painted white. We were paleontologists and "dug"
for bones in brownies. I have them for two days - we did lots of
sorting and biingo games, too. Barb
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More from Trish-thanks :-)
Dinosaur Puppets
Supplies:
* Markers or crayons * Strip of 4 paper egg carton cups
attached * Strip of 2 paper egg carton cups attached * Sock
* Rubber bands * tape Step 1- Use markers to decorate the 4
egg cups *any* way the children want. Draw eggs on the 2 egg cups Step
2- Slip your hand inside the sock. Place the four egg cups on the top of
the sock. with adult help, put the rubber band on each end of the cups.
The rubber bands help keep the egg cups on your arm Step 3- with
adult help, tape the eyes to the sock near the toe area if the sock. Now
open and close your hand to make the puppet look like its talking. I
found this someplace on the internet a couple of years ago I don't know
where it comes from but I do know that it was submitted by Natalie in
Utah. Choose a container to use for the swamp. Place the bone- shaped
sponge at the bottom of the container. Pour water and salt mixture over
the sponge and let it soak in. Sprinkle salt over the top of the sponge
turn it over and sprinkle the other side. Bury the sponge under a layer
of dirt. Cover the sponge completely. Continue adding dirt until the
sponge is completely covered. Put vegetation/plant parts on top of the
dirt. Some of the plants should be standing up and some should be lying
flat on the dirt. Then write a swamp story to go with your project.
example: Miss Maloney's Swamp Story-- Once upon a time (at least 200
million years ago) a dinosaur... SOME ODDS AND ENDS Cut dinosaur shapes
from const. paper. Glue toothpicks or craft sticks on for "bones". Sort
dino pictures... meat eaters/plant eaters fossils: pour plaster of paris
in cupcake papers, press small dinos in and let plaster get almost dry.
Leaves and impression of dino.
_____________________________________
These are from Sharon
Make life sized dinosaur foot prints
see how many children will fit into it.
*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. *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? *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: 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--stegosaurus, 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. Add the "bones" to
the sand too. *Pretend to be "paleontologists" 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 *we did a plaster cast
of some dinosaur 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.... *get one of those
plastic models that you put together..and show it in skeleton 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. *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 dinosaurs. 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.
Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs - I've attached a few suggestions recieved from this and other
mailrings. The balloon activity for dinosaurs was a big hit with our
kindergartners. We made fossils with plaster of paris - found some things
outside (brances, leaves, etc.) and also did plastic animals. I have many
more dinosaur activity ideas (our class is the Dinosaur Room), but I'm
unsure about the age of your students.
We've not done an activity with invisible ink, but when working with
lemons, we wrote secret messages with lemon juice on white paper, then
"decoded" them the next day with an iron.
For toothpaste - how about making your own with some baking soda and
peppermint oil? Tom's of Maine toothpaste also has a website that has
activities and a virtual tour. www.tomsofmaine.com We also tried an
experiment where you take two hard boiled eggs, then coat one with flouride
toothpaste and put both eggs into a cup of cola. The eggs can't have
cracks in the shell. The treated egg should stay pretty white and the
other will turn brown. We looked at some ways that animals keep their
teeth clean (since they don't brush their teeth).
There are a couple of bubble ideas attached. We have enjoyed just making
bubbles with different items (flyswatters, strawberry baskets, soda can
rings, etc). We made bubble "prints" (put some bubble solution and food
color in a cup, blow with a straw until the bubbles start to overflow the
cup, take the straw out and press a piece of white paper on the bubbles) -
this is very popular in our class. Mailbox magazine had a bubble unit
about two years ago that we got several ideas from. We experiments with
catching bubbles (without popping them) using dry hands, wet with water
hands, and soapy hands - we talked about surface tension and the soap
making the bubbles stretchy. We looked at the colors we saw in bubbles and
did some follow up with prisms and painting paper circles with watercolors.
We have bubble races continually throughout the summer - whose bubble will
go the farthest. We record the length on a graph. We do a writing
assignment about where we'd go/what we'd do if we were bubbles. In our
science center one day we have some 7-Up of Sprite and we experiment with
raisins - putting them in the soda and watching them "ride" the bubbles to
the top of the glass, then sink with the bubble pop - great introduction to
air pressure.
Recipe for "gluep" is attached. We made "flubber" or silly putty with
liquid starch and glue - just mix until you get the right consistency. My
favorite slime is really easy - just cornstarch and water. We put this in
our sand table when exploring solids and liquids.
In our town, we have a major bottling company for Squirt products - we were
able to go a see a tour of the bottling machines, watching the pop be mixed
(syrup and water) and then packaged. It was short but very cool. We did
our own version of the Pepsi challenge (we used more than colas) and did a
graphing activity with the results. We made a mini word wall with the
labels from beverages that the kids collected. We talked some about
carbonation and molecules being sped up when shaken (of course we shook
some cans). That part was a little over the kids heads, but we did some
sort of group movement thing where we were the soda molecules and one of
the staff pretended to shake us up, then we would calm down, etc.
We've haven't done much with volcanoes - but we did make one during a unit
on Hawaii. we took an empty paper towel tube and mounted it in some clay
in the middle of a piece of cardboard. We put crushed up newspaper around
the tube to make the mountain shape and glued strips of newspaper , papier
mache style over the top to smooth it out a little. Then we painted it.
Unfortunately, I can't find the recipe we used to make the volcano erupt -
it was just two things we added together - maybe someone out there knows
the combination.
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
One cup used coffee grinds
1/2 cup salt
1/4 cup sand
Tempera paint or food coloring
Procedure:
1. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients into a dough.
2. Remove the dough form and knead it on a floured surface.
3. Hide small dinos in the center of the dough and allow dough to dry in a warm place
for 2-3 days.
4. When dry, the dough will look and feel like a rock. Break open the rock with a
small hammer to reveal the dinos!
I can't wait until we do dinos next school year. We will follow the recipe and then
write a "how-to" composition about it.
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