I'm sorry I haven't been posting much! This school year has been CRAZY! We went remote for about six weeks from November through December. We came back face-to-face after Winter Break and have been ever since!
Last year, we didn't get to do our big Dinosaur Unit due to being quarantined. I am SO happy that I was able to start it last week! We kicked off the unit by reading "Dinosaur Lady" by Linda Skeers. It's about Mary Anning, the first Paleontologist! I am still amazed that this year is the first time in my life that I've heard of her! She's pretty awesome! Then we worked on a flip book about her life! The next day, we talked in-depth about paleontology and the job of paleontologists. The third day is when the real fun began!
I ordered {THESE} kits and {THESE} cute hats (from Amazon), as well as disposable tablecloths, and eventually, disposable cake pans (more on that later)!
DINO DIG DAY 1: EXCAVATION
The kids each got the following: 1 plaster egg, 3 tools, a hat, and a clipboard with their recording sheet (below) and a paper ruler. Apparently I'm a bit of a hoarder because while I was looking for rulers, I found a stash of 6" paper rulers from the ISAT test when I taught 6th grade! They came in handy! I went over the directions and then I let them start digging! They had about 45 minutes to dig and only two kids were able to get their fossil out in that time. Also, this was WAY messier than when I tested one out in my kitchen! The tablecloths helped out a bit, but there were still pieces of plaster everywhere! The kids were pretty messy too, they had been wiping their hands on their shirts and pants and were covered in white dust! I gave the kids a gallon sized ziploc labeled with their names to hold their tools, clipboard, and egg until the next day. That night I went to the Dollar Tree and bought foil cake pans to try and contain the mess a bit for the next day!
DINO DIG DAY 2: EXCAVATION, IDENTIFICATION & RECREATION
I set everything back up while the kids were at recess and I made sure I had plenty of time for the kids to work - it was Friday and I wasn't dragging this into the next week!
After extracting their fossils from the egg, the kids had to record how long & tall their fossil was and then record it's characteristics - long or short neck? 4 legs or 3 back legs? spikes? neck frill? horns? etc.
Then they had to look at pictures of dino skeletons and identify what dinosaur fossil they had.
Once that was done, they were given clay (that came with the kits) and got to recreate their dinosaur! I let them pick their colors and they got pretty creative!
The kids were getting done at different times, so I had a few Bitmoji classrooms ready on Google Classroom for them to explore - all about dinosaurs, obviously! Overall, I feel like the kids liked this activity and I would for sure do it again! I wouldn't call this a total classroom transformation, but close!
XOXO,
Rachel :)
