Dinosaur Dip

I found a dinosaur egg at the grocery store.  Have you ever seen one before ?
                  
I know what you’re thinking “it looks like an avocado” well I thought it looked
                                    like a dinosaur egg.
       
That is what we talked about when we sat down to make our special snack.  Could this be a dinosaur egg?  Why or why not?  Most children were into believing that it might possibly be a dinosaur egg (I’ve never lied to them before).  While others new it was an avocado right from the start.  This little prompt allowed me the opportunity to talk about using my imagination.  I told them that I was pretending that this was a dinosaur egg.
          
Avocados are great for using descriptive words, such as; bumpy, dark, shiny.
     And even more when you cut it open - green, slippery, smooth.
         
  We scooped the insides into a bowl and gave them a good mash.
                
          Then prepared the rest of the ingredients.
    
             Chopped onions and tomatoes.
       
            One last stir then for a surprise…
        
       Dinosaur teeth or toes, depending on who was talking,
                       to use to scoop up our dip.
       
       
                      Mmmm dino delicious.

Dinosaur Nesting

                
Dinosaurs took over our igloo last week which meant it was time to move on,
       take down the igloo and create a space for the dinosaurs.
         
I used a child’s wading pool and covered it with brown paper to make a nest. 
    
Then added fabric, a variety of dinosaurs and eggs and a play structure beside it.
          The dinosaurs look like they are trying to escape.

  
At first the grown ups weren’t sure if the children should go in the nest but
that was the most direct way to get to the eggs.  Plus climbing over the edge
helped work their balance and ability to manoeuvre around objects.

     
I’ve also noticed that some children like to be inside a smaller space.
         
So I added a box for a cave.  We’ll often see at least one child tucked inside playing, telling themselves stories or just getting away from the busyness of the room.  (Just like how they used the igloo)
   
The older children' play is more involved with the dinosaurs.  They tell each other what the dinosaurs are doing.  They create story lines, and scenarios.  They move around more so most of their play takes place on the outside of the nest. 

Dinosaur Egg Hunt

        Last week we took our hunting for dinosaurs outside.
           
The inspiration came from this book by Anna Milbourne and Mandy Field
                               called “The Dinosaur”.
         
It is about dinosaur (stegosaurus) hatching from eggs in a forest, growing
             big and discovering the world around him.
                      
At the same time I found a recipe for coffee dough that is baked.  I wrapped
the dough around little dinosaur toys and baked them so they were hard.

        
On the day of our hunt, Rosilyn, a volunteer in my program, hid the dinosaur
eggs in the forest around the big rock.  There were similarities between the
forest in the book and our forest.  Like the prickly plants that had berries or
sticks and twigs for the dinosaur to eat.

   
We got ready with our nature bags full of tools (hammer, brush, clipboard
                     and pencil) and headed out to the woods.
            
The children were sceptical of finding any real eggs.  As we walked one child said he
could smell dinosaur eggs.  What do they smell like?  Cucumbers, strawberries
        were some suggestions as the children took sniffs of the air.

 
I was the first to find an egg as we reached the big rock.  I took out my hammer
to demonstrate how to break the egg open but soon realized that the eggs
                                weren’t as brittle as I hoped.
 
Improvising I started to bend the egg and I made a cracking sound then out
poked a long tail.  One child said ‘It’s a worm!”  So I continued to bend the
                       end until two feet could be seen.
     
That sent everyone off to find their own egg and the cracking began.

           
Once they found an egg they pulled out their clipboard and hammer
              and set to work trying to break it open.
              
Most times the hammer was put aside to use our hands to do the work.
         
      
Sometimes help was needed.  Grandma helped this child crack it open
                           and pull out her orange dino. 

          
         
We tried to predict what kind of dinosaur would be in each egg. 
What colour it might be?  Or how big it might grow up to be?

  
I encouraged them to make notes about their dinosaur. 
What did it look like?  What would you call it?
       
As we were heading back to school, one child asked me
“Are they real dinosaur eggs?”  Not wanting to spoil the magic
of our discovery I answered with a question “What do you think?” 
He thought for a moment and then quietly said “Yes.”

The next day at school one of the parents, who is a teacher at our
school, shared with me that her son told the whole family about
the experience and ended it with "You never know what you find
in a forest!"