Here's the highlights of dinosaur week:
Dramatic Play
A paleontologist dig site. The first 2 days, was wheat and plastic dinosaur bones. They had hats and vests as well, plus brushes to help in their excavating.
Week 2, I made dirt dinosaur eggs, that they got to break apart to find the small dinosaur toys. (recipe here) They really loved hatching the eggs! The big dinosaurs joined the tub that day from the block area, to be the parents. I only remembered a picture once they were hatched.
On the 4th day, I added the plastic eggs with ABCs on them, so they could put them in eggs and hatch them over and over. Plus, they were matching the capital and small letters on the eggs.
There were also T-rex hats from Dollar Tree. Things got a little wild on the first day, lots of hitting and fighting with them on, so they were put away the next 2 days, and earned back the last day, and they played much better with them. Some cute things they were playing, was they would play until they "died" and just laid there. Then, other kids dressed as paleontologists and armed with brushes, would come and "discover" them. They always came back to life at the point. It was a fun game they invented, and one of the many reasons play time is a priority for me. They kept asking other kids to join them and play paleontologists with them, and when they died, they'd yell for paleontologists to come and discover them buried in the dirt!
Blocks
We had big and small dinosaur toys out all week here, plus a few games and puzzles on the shelf to pull down.
Art
Dot markers and dinosaur dot pages. They were going through these so fast, I had to copy a bunch more in the first 15 minutes of the day. They really enjoyed it!
Watercolor dinosaur skeletons. I traced dinosaur skeletons with a white crayon, so they couldn't see it. Then they painted over it with watercolors to reveal the dinosaur. They were amazed! Each child did at least one, and some stayed awhile and did several. They were fascinated by painting, then watching the paint just disappear. One child painted over his so many times to watch it disappear, he wore a hole into the paper.
We had playdough with rollers and cookie cutters, but also dinosaurs to add footprints and make fossils.
Painting with dinosaur footprints. I had paint brushes out too, because some kids just like to paint, but they all stomped the dinos on their pages too. Then, most of them painted over the footprints. It's all about the process, not product, right!?
Small Manipulatives
Dinosaur math puzzle, putting pictures in order 1-10
Dinosaur matching puzzle
Dinosaur lacing cards (from paper plates)
ABC matching dinos. We worked together on these, and they were great at matching the capital and small letters. They also made patterns with the dinos, really extending their learning.
D is for Dinosaur with flat marbles with pictures from here
Matching dinosaurs on the magnet board with pictures from here
Writing
Dinosaur chalk boards
Dinosaur stencils
Reading
I don't usually specifically write about the reading center, because it's always just books related to our theme, but I think this is one of the first times that I read every single book in the center. We spent a lot of our free play time reading. And I read Mine-o-saur, which we had read during friendship week, each day. They love that book, and call each other Mine o saurs when they're not sharing!
Snack
Day 1, we were herbivores, and learned that word. We talked about plants a dinosaur would eat, and how their teeth showed a paleontologist if they were an herbivore or carnivore. They were wonderful to try all the yummy plants I offered! We had salad (spinach) with ranch, carrots, baby bell peppers, apples, and grapes. They kept passing it around to get more until they were all gone. They loved eating the leaves! And then licking their extra ranch off their plates :)
Day 2, we were carnivores, with our sharp carnivore teeth, and ate dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets.
The other days were just regular crackers and juice days.
Outside
We got some spring and winter weather during this theme, so outside play varied each day! It was discouraging getting back into snow clothes after a warm spell in February. It's making me anxious for spring!
Large Group
We learned the poem 5 Enormous Dinosaurs
5 Enormous Dinosaurs, stomping on the floor. 1 ran away, and then there were 4.
4 enormous dinosaurs, looking at me. 1 ran away, and then there were 3.
3 enormous dinosaurs, chewing on a shoe. 1 ran away, and then there were 2.
2 enormous dinosaurs, lying in the sun. 1 ran away, and then there was 1.
1 enormous dinosaur, having no more fun. He ran away, and then there were none.
We did the poem several times each day. Sometimes we'd look for the rhyming words, and other times focus on the counting. We did what I call "kindergarten math" with them, which makes them feel smart. It's just decomposing the number 5. Pretty much, as we take away 1 dinosaur, I leave it on the board and we show the different groupings of 5. 5 and 0, 4 and 1, 2 and 3, 3 and 2, 1 and 4, and 0 and 5. We did this during Oceans week with 5 little crabs too. These songs are more than just counting backwards!
We also learned the word "paleontologist" and the different things they do. We practiced herbivore and carnivore each day as well, and also learned a lot of dinosaur names during our play and books.
Day 1, we read Digging for Dinosaurs and learned about paleontologists. We used leftover chocolate play dough from valentines, and made fossils. They could use plants, shells, or dinosaur feet for their fossils. They came home once dry.
Day 2, we read Ten Little Dinosaurs, then practiced more counting with these play dough mats. We made dinosaur eggs to match the number on the mat. I got the mats here.
Day 3. we read Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp, then danced. We talked about tempo, and they dance fast and slow, depending on the tempo of the song. They used the dancing ribbons too. Then we read Dinorumpus.
Day 4, we read Dinorella. Then we did a graphing activity. We first chose our favorite dinosaurs, and made a class graph. Then we just took turns with a spinner and graphed the results. They had so much fun and were cheering for a winner as they spun!
Small Group
My group worked on sorting with dinosaur pictures and toys. We sorted by size, color, and other attributes like walks on 2 feet or 4 feet, or flies. I used pictures from here.
Miss Kim's group played a dinosaur matching game.
Week 2, Miss Kim's group worked on numbers with the dinosaur 1-10 puzzles, and also practiced tracing their names.
My group used dinosaurs to measure things throughout the room.
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