Tube Dino Skeletons

A simple, quick activity I set out this morning after I received a donation of a bag of
                                                tubes.
                    
                
    
                                    Adding a head and teeth.
          
                                     Tyrannosaurus Rex

Dino Antics Day 12

             
     The silly dinosaurs were found in the house area enjoying some food.
         
            Confusingly triceratops was eating a meat sandwich,
                     
                     and T-Rex was munching on strawberries!
                   
                            Just bread for Long Neck.

Dino Antics Day 11

            
               We found the dinosaurs busy reading books this morning.     
              They borrowed Mr. Potato Head's glasses to enjoy the books.
                              
                  Long Neck was having a good laugh reading his book.
                  
                     We found the last one buried beneath the books.
                          
                            Having fun reading with a Dino Buddy.

Measuring Dinosaurs

             
Wanting to add more math to the program I set up this invitation to measure some of our dinosaurs.  It has lots of dinosaurs in the middle, among the greenery and four trays each holding different counting tools; corks, cubes, blocks and people.
   
I noticed the first day that some children had a difficult time seeing the beginning and the end of the dinosaur so I add a stick for the dino to stand on and that helped.
         
Some children measured the length of the dinosaurs while others measured
                                                the height.
       
Or they used one of the tools, like the people, and measured with them standing on top of each other or they laid them down from head to foot.  She didn't want to
                            stop so added more dinosaurs in the row.
               
To encourage measuring both length and height and to record the findings
                                    I created this data sheet.
              
                       The pure pleasure of building was evident.

Dino Antics Day 10

It was a busy morning.  The plan was to be open for an hour before we head on a field trip to our local museum to check out the fossils.  But before I opened I wanted to make some fossil cookies to surprise the children.
             
I prepped the dough in the school kitchen then went in to the classroom to find
               something to use to make fossil impressions in each ball.
                 
When I returned I was surprised to see the silly dinosaurs leaving their own
                                impressions in the dough.
                          
      Of course T-Rex couldn’t help himself and needed to take a bite.

Dino Antics Day 9

              
This morning we found that the Dinos had pulled down jars of crayons and left
                              some art work for us to find.
              
            Oh oh triceratops was wearing a mask.  Who was the artist?
                  
      Reactions from the children varied from “hmm what are they doing?”   
 
                     to “let’s draw with them” or “I’ll clean up”.
                
                               The artist left their signature.

Dino Antics Day 8

             
           The Dinos discovered our ramp in the block corner this morning. 
              
It looks like Brachiosaurus was having a difficult time getting up the steeper part.
  
The smaller Dinos tied one of our measuring tapes around the long neck and were
                                         trying to pull him up.
           
The children weren’t too impressed but figured the dinosaurs could be helpful
                                                anyways.

Dino Antics Day 7

           
                 We found the dinosaurs in the art area this morning. 
                          They had taken the turntables out for a spin.
                  
                                  We helped them spin some more.

Dino Antics Day 6

It’s been over a week since the Dinos have been causing mischief in our classroom.  Each day as families arrive I hear a few more talking about the Dinos.  Wondering where they might be today.

They were well hid this morning.
                                 
               We found them inside the big box that holds our light table.
                             
                 They were being silly trying to wear our see through blocks.
                             
    
           We decided to help them build a castle and some towers.

Dino Antics Day 5

                    
This morning we found the silly dinosaurs in the tub with the marble tree.    
                       
          Brachiosaurus is tall enough to reach the top of the tree.
 
The other three stuck their tails and horns in the holes to block the marbles from
                               falling all the way down.
                     
                      They stayed and played the rest of the morning.