Dinosaurs

It was so much fun exploring our dinosaur theme this week!  We made our own dinosaur fossils out of salt dough, hunted for dinosaur eggs on the playground, made dinosaurs with our handprints, measured dinosaur bones, chiseled dinosaurs out of ice, scrubbed dinosaurs with toothbrushes, created dinosaurs out of shapes, and read a variety of books about dinosaurs too.  We learned that they lived hundreds of years ago but are now extinct.  We also learned that they were different shapes and sizes, and they lived on land, in the air, and in the water.  We also learned that some of them ate plants (herbivores), some at meat (carnivores), and some at both (omnivores).  Although these were pretty advanced vocabulary words, these kiddos actually seemed to understand them pretty well.  Never underestimate what these little minds are able to do! :)  We also included pictures from the Trike-a-Thon as well as our visit from the Lafayette Fire Department this week as well.  It was a very busy week as you will see!  Hope you enjoy our pics and videos from all of the activities!

Dinosaur Stomp

Dinosaur Storybots Videos

This week we worked a lot on our assessment sheets to help us get ready for the assessment coming up after Fall Break.  These green sheets show the skills that will be on the assessment, and they can be found in your child's Reading Folders.  (You can also get another copy from the last email I sent out about the zoo blog being ready.)  Please look over these skills to help your child prepare. :)

We also read a book in our reading group that helped us review the color words we've been working on in class so far.

To work on our fine motor skills, we practiced weaving different animals during our independent activities. 

Ms. Rose (a fill-in for Ms. Nicole) helped us measure dinosaur bones by using unifex cubes.  We also practiced writing our numbers as well by doing this.

Ms. Jennifer (a fill-in for Ms. Nicole) helped us work on our letter of the week by making horses out of the letter Hh.

I created dinosaur eggs made of ice by putting plastic dinosaurs in balloons, filling them up with water, and freezing them overnight.  These frozen eggs were then chiseled and hammered away with little wooden hammers and pegs by the kids to try to reach the dinosaurs inside.  This was a cold but fun experiment for these little hands. :)  

 We used salt dough to push an imprint of a dinosaur into, and then I baked them in the oven for a little while to harden them.  Once they dried and cooled, I painted the dinosaur that they made an imprint with.  In the end, you have a dinosaur fossil!

Chats about our playdough mats. :)

Dinosaur jackets are too cute!

To celebrate our color orange of the week, we had a little man dress up like Blimpie, a popular guy on YouTube with educational videos about all kinds of topics, including Dinosaurs!  He was a perfect Blimpie impersonator too!

Happy birthday to this sweet girl this week!

We used all different shapes to create our own dinosaurs this week, and then we named them too.

We used our color words and shape identification to do a "color by shape" sheet with Ms. Nicole.  Welcome back Ms. Nicole!  We missed you!

We read a little poem about dinosaurs and our color words this week as well.

Letter "H" Show and Tell

We had 1 box of Hatchimals.

We had 1 book "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."

We had 1 heart pillow.

We had 1 hamburger pillow.

We had 2 Incredible Hulk toys.

We had 1 hippo.

We had 1 unicorn with an "H" name I can't remember. :)  Sorry!

We had 2 hats.

We had 3 horses.

We had 1 helicopter.

We got to spend some time in the green room this week on one of our rainy days.

We enjoyed playing inside with friends too.

We pretended to be archeologists and paleontologists by digging for letters just like they dig for bones and artifacts.  Then, we placed the puzzle letter back into the correct puzzle spot.

We hunted for dinosaur eggs and found them inside each egg.

We had a visit from our local fire department with Lafayette Fire Department.  They showed us a video on fire safety and then talked to us about how to be prepared in case of a fire.

We realized that it's just people under the fire suits, so there's nothing to be afraid of when we see them.  "Don't hide!  Go outside!"

We even got to hear him talk with his oxygen mask on.  We know that it just makes his voice sound funny, but he's still safe to go with in case of a fire.

We even had some friends brave enough to give him a high five too!

Then, the moment we've all been waiting for...we got to see the fire truck!

We even had the chance to walk through it!

Thank you firemen for all that you do!  We appreciate you!

Fun times at the Trike-a-Thon this year!

Thank you so much for all your support!  Because of all of you, we raised $8,036!!  Our best year yet!

Bridge and Lunch Bunch Afternoon Activities 

We made fingerprint dinosaurs with stamp pads.

We played the game "POP" about identifying and counting numbers.

We created dinosaurs that had patterns with black and green and then counted their spikes.

We played Dinosaur Bingo.

We reviewed our letters with playdough mats.

We made dinosaur masks out of paper plates and foam triangles.

We decorated our own dinosaur foot prints with stickers and markers.

We listened to directions on how to draw a dinosaur, and this is what we came up with. :)

Hope you enjoyed all of our pictures from our busy week!