Dino Day

Dino day was yet another fun day at the children's museum. The highlight of my day was touching a 65 million year old triceratops skull! How many people can say that they have done that?

We started the day off by looking at a few pictures and discussing the following:
1. What did you see/notice in the picture?
2. What did you see that makes you say that?
3. What more do you see?

These three questions helped focus the answers and the thinking. Students can use their imagination but have to be able to back up what they say. It follows the scientific method, is a reading strategy, and is student centered. The downsides are if you have hesitant participators, it is not an hands on activity, and it is a spiraling activity.

Since the focus of the day was dinosaurs we got to create our own dinosaur out of play-dough. I loved this activity because I am a very hands on learner. We were given a sheet of different terms such as odo - tooth, ops - eye. We were asked to create a dinosaur and name it based off of the scientific terms like real scientists would do. I thought this was very creative and definitely something I would do with my students!

The rest of the day was spent learning how to make a cast out of plaster of a dinosaur tooth, something kids would love! We also got to hear one of the dinosaur experts in the museum talk about everything he does and what he knows about dinosaurs. Bringing experts into the classroom is a great idea and helps the students gain deeper knowledge!