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Friday, May 10, 2013

Dinosaurs for Preschoolers - Part 2

It was a sad day when I announced Dinosaur Week was over. One week had not been enough to quench the thirst of a new found interest it seems. To appease the sadness, I gave Adrian the dinosaur toob and told him it was his to keep now and for a mere moment, it seemed to make amends but not for long. I love feeding Adrian's curiosity but at the same time, my mini-units are planned for a one week span only. I guess we'll be adding this theme to next year's agenda? :)

Salt Dough Dinosaur Fossils

This was my first time making salt dough and so I decided to make it without Adrian to see how much work it was. I was unsure how much dough it would make too. My initial idea was to make a separate salt dough disk for each dinosaur fossil but not knowing how thick it had to be, if it'd thicken or not, I decided to keep my dough together and make my impressions (using all the dinosaurs from Safari Ltd. Toob) all in the same dough disk. I used Rainy Day Mum's recipe and overall, I quite liked it. I wanted to try hers since it was a microwave drying one (speedy!) Of course, mine took much longer to dry (12 minutes?) since it was an entire sheet but I was quite satisfied with my first salt dough still. I didn't want it to look flat and perfect anyway because dinosaur fossils shouldn't be! :) If it had been for Christmas ornament, well...who makes such a big one anyway? The next day, Adrian was shown the fossils, we discussed what fossils were and he tried to match the dinos to the fossils. Not as easy as you may think. It's a good eye exercise if you ask me!

Close up of the fossils

Adrian Working at Matching Dinosaur Fossils with Dinosaur Figures

Pasta Dinosaur

Now if this only got Adrian to eat pasta! *sigh* Oh well. At least it was fun to do. I poured Wacky Mac Veggie Shapes's pasta (you could use any pasta and dye yours or even keep it plain) into a bowl and Adrian's task was to create a dinosaur using the pasta. He came up with lots of possibilities but I first had to show him one picture to get him started (nothing unusual here). This inspiration came from PreKinders. After that, he was on a roll. He quite liked the prints the dinos left in the play dough (see below).

Pasta Dinosaur Fossil

Penne Pasta Dinosaur Craft

Another pasta dinosaur we did this week was one involving glue and only penne. We used Wacky Mac's veggie shapes again but you could used plain penne dyed green too. Our template for this beautiful T-Rex came from Busy Bee Kids Crafts. This idea was to involve more fine motor by having Adrian use the glue bottle himself and spread it on the lines and then put the penne on the glued lines of the dino. It turned out great and he quite liked it. It is still hanging on the fridge as we speak.

Fine Motor: Dinosaur Bath Applique & Marbles

Another fine motor activity we enjoyed this week was this cute bath applique shaped like a dinosaur! It had so many suction cups that my idea of involving tweezers to add a challenge was a no go. :( Adrian still quite liked putting the marbles on the cups and it was a bit more challenging than last time since the cups were so much closer together and much more numerous.

Math : Giant Floor Puzzle featuring Dinosaurs

Every birthday and every Christmas, Adrian prepares a wish list with my help. Ever since he was little Melissa & Doug's puzzles have always been on it. Now that he's big enough, the giant floor puzzles are his favorite of course so for dinosaur week, I dusted this one off. That's right. Dusted it off. Until now, this one was not quite so popular (it is a bit harder than the others because of the muted colors I assumed) but now...it's practically flying off the shelves because dinosaurs are a well liked topic! :)

Dinosaur Bones Craft (Q-Tip)

Crafting we have been this week. Adrian likes it more and I don't mean to push it but I like to explore things when they are popular! :) Q-tips have been used by many to represent bones and were used here to be dinosaur bones. I saw this on Stuck on Glue originally and thought it was really cute and thought we'd try it as well. I made mine (above) and Adrian did his (see below). He glued the head first (template taken from PBS Kids) and glued Q-tips after. I did not draw any lines on the paper. I really wanted this craft to be taking its own form. The head was just a way to get him started. Art is a process in which there is no right or wrong and I wanted him to know that. Get creative!

Q-Tip Dinosaur Craft; Adrian's Version

Dinosaur Pre-Writing Practice; we're getting better at staying on the lines!

Looking for a dinosaur package? I did too. Didn't use much of it actually. Never do but usually end up printing a few pages (and these were SO inviting). This week, we used Over the Big Moon's free Dinosaur Package for its prewriting practice (and counting dinos clip cards featured in a previous post).

Excavating Dinosaurs from Plaster

Months ago during a clearance event, I bought from Lakeshore Materials this Dino Dig & Build kit. It contained a T-Rex and Triceratops skeleton, excavating tools and mounting hardware for a ridiculous price. I never really paid much attention to the fact that it was for kids 6 and over. Maybe I should have. It wasn't unsafe or anything like that but digging took forever and was rather hard. In fact, we're still at it. And I helped a lot. Maybe we started on the wrong side of the plaster but anyhow. It was still fun. Just long. Kind of messy. And hard. Adrian did get the idea of what people do when digging for dinos though. If we ever finish excavating the remains, we'll mount and show them off! :)

Half-Way Done with Excavation of Bones
1 hour in the digging process with LOTS of mama help

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Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Dinosaurs for Preschoolers - Part 1

"Dinosaur Week" was a much awaited week at our house. I think most schools and household probably hold this week much earlier in the season but until I started received dinosaur skulls and dinosaur figures, I didn't see much interest in dinosaurs under this roof. Adrian has had a giant floor puzzle with a dinosaur theme for nearly a year now and has completed it maybe 2-3 times at most (and he lovessss puzzles!) so this tells you how little interest he's had in the past. Somehow, when the packages filled with school materials and dinos started coming in though, the interest for the reptile rocketed. "Good", I thought. There's nothing like a little anticipation! :)

Dinosaur Sensory Bin with Interactive Pond and Volcano

Ok. So this was totally copied from Beth at 123 Homeschool 4 Me. Beth worked with her own children for 6 weeks on the dinosaurs theme and when I saw her bin, I was absolutely won over. First, because I had somewhat given up on making sensory bins for Adrian. At nearly 5 years old, he barely touched them and I couldn't afford to spend more time in creating more grown up versions of them for him not to even look at them. Then, I saw Beth's and knew he would love it. Who wouldn't? I was looking forward to making the volcano erupt myself! Anyhow, in order to make this bin, you'll need lots of baking soda (I bought the big box and used half of it to cover my storage bin). I made the pond using a plastic lid and then put a few drops of vinegar and blue food coloring and then added water. I "planted" some real branches from our shrubs outside and a few fragrant flowers (although we don't see them in the pictures). I scattered some rosemary on the "snow" as well. For the volcano, I used a small spray bottle and removed the lid. Per Beth's instructions, I filled it with warm water (left about 1inch empty), added a few drops of soap detergent (3-4), a few of red food coloring and covered it with homemade play dough (yes! I finally made some. My first batch!). When time came to erupt the volcano, I had some scoops ready with baking soda and vinegar. I put in 2 tablespoons of both in and it was gently pouring over. After the initial eruption, it was all up to Adrian. He knew what to do and believe me, he loved making the volcano erupt himself. He also loved rushing the dinosaurs to the pond every time the lava came out. Overall, this sensory bin was the biggest hit since the toddler years! Thank you Beth! :)

Dinosaur Sensory Bin Prior to Volcano Eruption

Language - Learning about Dinosaurs & matching cards to dino figures

On the first day we explored the topic of dinosaurs, we had a lot to discuss. What's a dinosaur? Did they really exist? Well, where did they go then? And where did they live before they went extinct? What did they eat? How big were they really? After the big questions were covered (don't you love books?), we explored dinosaurs more thanks to the cards you see in the picture. Montessori Print Shop offers one set of these for free! You can also, like me, purchase an additional set to have more variety. I also made a few more cards just so Adrian would have a card to match each dinosaur contained in his Safari Ltd Dinosaur Toob. I made mine similar to MPS but they came out slightly shorter and bigger I guess (told you I was no good at designing!). Matching dinos and cards was really fun to him and it's a great exercise for the eyes. It's all in the details.

Matching Dinosaur Figures with their Cards

Geography - Dinosaur Figures and Continent Map

A few weeks before we were due to have our Dinosaurs week, I ordered from Kid Advance this beautiful Continent Puzzle Map. At first, I was a bit disappointed because I was told it wouldn't be here in time for our unit but in the end, it arrived during our dinosaur study! Yay! Unfortunately, as you can see, it was damaged during shipment (big, big earthquake made the "plates" shift in South America/Antarctica and parts of Asia). Kid Advance is, of course, sending me a new map (they have great customer service!) but Adrian, having seen this one, was not going to let this one go so easily so I still went ahead and did the planned activity explaining the map would be replaced later (he respects his things and immediately noticed something was off with this map as he's already worked with it in German school).

Adrian already knew the continent names (in German thanks to his Montessori-inspired German school) so we learned them in English this time and then he was off to put the right dinosaur on the right continent. Of course, some belonged to more than one so I made a choice when I made the labels so North America would be less crowded. Wish we had some South American dinos! :( More figures for next year! :)

Dinosaur cutting Strips

Based on the Safari Ltd. Dinosaur Toob figures, I selected pictures of the same dinos and scaled them down so Adrian would have to open the scissor blades twice to get the paper strip cut. He's getting more confident in cutting so we've gone from one cut to get through to two. Yes, I am a proud mama! :)

Carnivore or Herbivore : Science and Gluing

All that cutting had to go somewhere. Adrian is proud of his cutting skills and I wanted him to know his work was going to be put to good use; we were cutting so we'd be able to use these pictures later. I showed him the Dinosaur Diet sheet I prepared. When all pictures were cut, Adrian had to read from the cards shown earlier which type of food the dino preferred but before that, he of course, had to identify the dinosaur. Finally, he glued them with a glue stick on the right side of the sheet. This was an all-around activity he quite enjoyed because he really felt he did it all himself, from the cutting, to the reading, to the gluing and classifying.

Stegosaurus Craft, Math & Fine Motor

I jotted down this craft from No Time for Flashcards many months ago (yes...I'm very old-fashioned. I don't do Pinterest yet...) so we could give it a try. It was a tremendous success. I used a stegosaurus coloring page from which I cut the spikes (I am terrible at drawing), traced it on thick cardboard from a package box and cut it out. Adrian decided that since it was a Stegosaurus, it should be green with red spikes (like the one in the Toob) so on day 1, I let him paint the dino accordingly and 6 wooden clothespins accordingly as well. On Day 2, with everything dry, the eye was glued on and a die was brought out. Haven't played with those in forever. Adrian got to roll how many spikes the Stegosaurus would wear and it ended up with 5 but not before he had a few tryouts! :)

Craft In Progress

Digging for Dinosaur Fossils - Paleontology

While browsing dinosaur activities for inspiration on Living Montessori Now (one of my go-to resources in the Montessori world), I saw this activity involving the Safari Ltd Dinosaur Skulls and just had to get my own set of skulls so Adrian could try it out. He loves sand and looking for things in the sand so this work was a perfect match. I will tell you that this sandbox was small but so were the skulls. It was not as easy as it seems. I thought it would be a fast find but it wasn't at all. I guess in a way, the skulls are practically the same color as the sand and they are not that big either. Once the skulls were found, we tried to identify them. Some were easier than others given their "odd" shape. I believe the entire dinosaur skeletons are also available thru the same company as well. I guess it might have been easier for identification purposes at such a young age.

Close up of our Dinosaur Skulls in the Sand

Math - Counting Dinosaurs

Improvised activity of the week? counting dinosaurs and marking the correct amount with...a dinosaur! :) This happened while "School" was officially over but Adrian was officially not finished with school. I told him he could count the dinosaurs on these cards if he wanted to and use the figures as markers...Visit Over the Big Moon to get an entire free package of Dinosaur Printables. An expanded pack is now available as well!

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