Dino Antics Day 4

             
I saw the dinosaurs, before the children arrived, measuring themselves with our
                                    magnetic wooden blocks.
          
           
I didn’t know they were into math.  We’ll have to challenge them another day.
                       
Unfortunately it was very busy this morning so I didn’t see how the children
             discovered them but they did get some play time.
                  
I’ve made up this sign to post tomorrow to encourage the children to let me
                         know when they find the dinosaurs.

Play to Learn

This little boy found two balls on the carpeted area.  I watched him suck on the balls, drop them, crawl after them, put them in his mouth again and crawl some more until he came across this tube.
   
Once he got to the tube he sat up and dropped the ball into the tube.  No one was around him, he was on his own and focused on what he was doing.  After putting both balls in he would lean over and peer inside then try to get them out by sticking his hand in.
     
I showed him once to turn it over to get the balls out.  He promptly put the balls back in and tried again to get them out.  This time he picked it up and shook it.  It wasn’t till he dropped the pipe that the balls rolled out.
                                   
                          One rolled out and across the floor.
   
                      He followed and brought it back to the pipe.
      
      And started all over again.  Simple toy but so much learning.

Dino Antics Day #3

It’s Wednesday and we spend the whole morning with our grand friends at their seniors home.  Well I was surprised, when I opened my traveling bin, to see the dinosaurs inside.
                       
I think they were attracted to the bird’s nest that I had in there because in the nest
                                         there was an egg.
               
                       And it looked like the egg was ready to hatch.
                 
I carefully moved them all on to the floor and left them for the children to discover.
                 
                 This child was very interested and had lot to say.
 
“Where did the egg come from?  How does the egg hatch?  Is there a dinosaur inside?”  She picked it up and figured out how to open the egg.
  
“Which are the parents?”  She picked up the two blue dinosaurs and said the baby
                             didn’t have it’s stripes yet.
             
               Do dinosaurs sit on their eggs to help them hatch?

Dinosaurs in Mud

I love setting up this easy art and watching the children explore it.
               
I mixed instant chocolate pudding with water and poured it into a tray which sat on the paper covered art table.
                
The children were hesitant to walk the muddy dinosaurs on the paper.

            
        They soon got past that feeling as you can see by the table above.
             
There are no chairs today to encourage them to walk around and use the whole table.
 
Then the dinosaurs slipped in the mud and enjoyed a bath.  I saw them sliding across the paper.
           
                      The dinosaurs at the end of a busy morning.

Day 2 DiNovember

This morning the dinosaurs had moved on from playing with our silly glasses but
                               we weren’t sure to where.
              
The children were busy playing around the room and we forgot about the dinosaurs
                   until one child went to play with the play dough.
                
                 That’s when we found them EATING the play dough. 
                              
It must have happened during the night because the play dough was dried out
                                 which meant we had to throw it out.
                             
But that was okay because we decided to make slime using glue and
                              Seventh Generation laundry detergent.

      The children were generous and let the dinosaurs play with them.
Where will they be tomorrow?

DiNovember at StrongStart

Have you heard of Dinovember?
Refe and Susan Tuma spend November keeping their kids’ imaginations alive by convincing them that every night, their dinosaur toys come to life and get into all sorts of trouble.  They have been doing this for several years now and documenting it with photos.  They now have two books available called What the Dinosaurs did Last Night.  One is a story book and the other a photo book.

When asked why they set up their children’s dinosaurs every night for the month of November they replied, “Because in the age of iPads and Netflix, we don’t want our kids to lose their sense of wonder and imagination.”

I appreciate the whimsical and fun that this project can bring and wanted to do our own at StrongStart.  It works well with the interest the children have been showing about dinosaurs.
                
This morning when we arrived at school we discovered our dinosaurs trying on our
                                             funny glasses.
                      
               The children were surprised and thought they looked funny.
   
                The children were intrigued and decided to help them out.
             They began putting different glasses on each of the dinosaurs.
       
                                  I like this quote from the Tuma’s
            “Childhood is fleeting, so let’s make sure it’s fun while it lasts.”

Indoor StoryWalk

I wanted to share the idea of a StoryWalk with other classes in my school so set one up in our school hallway.
                
           
Little Boo was a good choice because it incorporates Halloween and the life cycle of a pumpkin.  The bottom picture shows the set up of the StoryWalk.  The streamers connected the pictures like a pumpkin vine and I had hoped to add leaves and flowers. But it didn’t stay like that.  The tape we have to use on the walls isn’t strong enough to hold the laminate pictures.  After the first day the pictures had fallen a few times and needed to be reposted with more tape.  Finally they stayed.

The StoryWalk was enjoyed by several classes and peaked the interest of others as they walked to and from gym and music.
   
Our big buddies read the story to us, enjoying the pictures and modeling how to follow the words. I was told that the kindergarteners and their big buddies read it too.
             
          I caught this grade 2/3 class taking turns reading each page.
                            
         Another time I heard our principal reading it to a student.
                He was able to read the word “Boo” each time.