Dinosaur Digging Site

The preschoolers had a blast digging for dinosaur bones in the sensory table.  In doing so, they also learned about the job of a Paleontologist and about the many different kinds of dinosaurs that lived long ago.  We talked about the fact that Paleontologists were scientists who find and explore things from the past.  We also talked about fossils & found out that there are actually many different kinds of fossils, including those of plants.  After exploring with fossils, we made some of our own dinosaur prints with paint, and attempted to make our own, dinosaur footprint fossils in cookie dough.

Then, when the preschoolers played in the dinosaur theme center, we talked about the physical characteristics of dinosaurs that lived long ago.  We talked about their scales, their spikes and even their bony plates.  We also looked at pictures of their skeletons & put some full body models of dinosaur bones together.  Lastly, the preschoolers' favorite part of playing with the dinosaurs was making them roar as they ran away from the hot lava that was exploding out of our volcano.  In science, we even conducted an experiment where we were able to make a pretend volcano explode!  In the end, the preschoolers learned about cause and effect as well as a lot of information about the past.  We hope that some of them might choose to be a Paleontologist, too!