Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs!

Our two words of the week this were are:  EXTINCT and FOSSIL.

We discussed that dinosaurs are EXTINCT which means that no living members of their group are still alive on the earth.  We guessed how long ago dinosaurs roamed the earth and realized it had been a LOT longer than we thought:  225 million years ago.  But since dinosaurs were not on the earth with humans, we wondered HOW could scientists know that dinosaurs truly existed??



Fossils!  Fossils are the remains or impression of plants or animals (that are petrified or) found in rock that lived a VERY long time ago (> 10,000 years! prehistoric organisms!).  This is how scientists know all they do about dinosaurs.  Each fossil is like the piece to a puzzle!



We also learned that the type of scientist that studies fossils is a paleontologist.  And we got to be paleontologists in Discovery!  We dug for fossils and gently brushed away the "dirt" and "debris" to find many fascinating bones in our very our dinosaur dig!

We looked at different types of fossils and discussed about many of the varied fossils scientists have found:  seashell impressions (mold), petrified wood, eggs, feathers (preserved in amber), insects, bones, even poop....there are many examples of fossils but the important thing for us to remember was that fossils are not just dinosaur bones.

We briefly talked about how fossils are formed over many, many thousands and thousands of years.

During our second week, we had two new words of the week:  CARNIVORE and HERBIVORE!



We compared various dinosaurs and examined their body sizes, their teeth, their heads, their feet, and their distinguishing features such spikes, horns, claws, and wings.  Some dinosaurs were meat-eaters which meant they ate meat.  They often had big, sharp teeth and were strong and fast, good hunters.  Dinosaurs that were plant-eaters were herbivores.  They often had smaller heads and teeth and surprisingly, were usually very large but not nearly as fast as most carnivores.



We examined the size of dinosaurs compared to humans.  Most dinosaurs were extremely large compared to us, but a few were the size of chickens and dogs! 

We got to see the true-to-size footprint and teeth of a Tyrannosaurus Rex!  We were able to fit 29 toddler-size feet inside ONE T-Rex footprint!

Our centers, in addition to the paleontologist dig, also included a fossil center where the children could create moldings or casts/impressions of their dinosaurs in "rock" (homemade rock dough) 

We also had a center for comparing our size to a dinosaur's size; and a center for matching the correct (plastic) dinosaur to its identification card (with picture and details). 

The children LOVED our dinosaur lessons!

Here are several books we enjoyed these two weeks:

Other books you could explore...