We are finishing up our Dinosaur Unit, and today was our official “Dino Day,” where it was dinosaur activities ALL DAY! In preparation for our big day, students made a paleontologist hat to wear while participating in the activities.
Our paleontologists worked deep in the jungle today.
We used our time from the beginning of school until before lunch to complete seven different rotations. I structured the activities like this:
Let’s take a more in-depth look at the activities. The Fizzy Dino Egg activity started more than two weeks ago when the students each made their own dinosaur egg using baking soda, water, and food coloring.
Students mixed the ingredients.
Then, they molded the mixture around a plastic dinosaur toy, creating the shape of an egg.
We let those eggs dry, and then today, students used pipettes and vinegar to melt the egg and reveal the dinosaur inside!
It took a lot of patience and fine motor work to finally hatch the dinosaur!
The Dinosaur Discovery activity was a write the room activity, where students took their clipboards and walked around the room in search of dinosaur-themed words. They then recorded these words in the Dino Dig Day notebooks. Activity three was Dino Dig, where students had to chisel away and reveal a dinosaur.
Students then had a chance to build dinosaurs using pattern blocks.
For rotation 5, students chose a variety of dinosaur stickers to use as inspiration for writing dinosaur sentences. They LOVED all the sticker choices!
“1. This is a carnivore.
2. It hunts.
Pterodactyl is not a dinosaur.”
I love how students are using their best guess spelling to demonstrate what they have learned!
“1. This is a dinosaur eating a plant.
2. This is a mommy dinosaur that’s coming to its baby.”
Rotation six had students measuring dinosaur footprints and comparing their size to their own feet!
Another dinosaur-themed math activity was the Dinosaur Math Toss where students tossed a bean bag through a hole. They then chose one of the numbers on the hole and used it to write an addition equation, which they later solved.
After the rotations were finished, students had a chance to practice being a paleontologist. They were given paleontologists tools: a chisel (toothpick), a shovel (gelato spoon), and a brush (watercolor brush) to use to excavate chocolate chips from a cookie. Once removed from the cookie, students counted and compared the number of chocolate chips.
It was a fun way to end the day!