Dinosaurs were grand!

As you might imagine, one week spent stomping with the dinosaurs was super grand!  The longer I teach the more I learn of how much I really don't know -- and naming the many different dinosaurs is clearly a talent I am working on.  Thank goodness my Toddlers know their dinosaurs so well!
I learned that one has a horn on his head, that he could actually blow!  Ms. Julie taught us this during our Music time on Monday.  We wondered if this horn-top-head was the first musical instrument?  (can I remember the correct name of the dinosaur-- not at the moment, but it was a multi-syllabic name.  I can look it up on that dinosaur's belly & report back to you soon!)

We had coffee grounds in the sensory table -- a little different texture than sand, and a deeper, darker brown that sand too.  Elena 'exploded' a volcano and the children watched as the baking soda/vinegar 'lava' bubbled up and over the top of the volcano, streaming down the side.  Some children knew that Lava is Hot, very very Hot.  They circled the dinosaurs around to watch the erupting volcano.

The children finger-painted two large dinosaurs (currently living on our bulletin board, though we help to relocate these two dinosaurs to one of the classroom walls soon).  They also made dinosaur footprints (still drying out -- to come home in the near future).  Model Magic was fun to squeeze and roll before 'foot-printing' it.  One little one insisted that the dinosaur wanted to eat the 'clay', not stomp on it.  The squeezing and rolling of clay, play dough, model magic and any similar products is a great muscle builder -- preparing little hands for their future daily use of pencils and pens.  They also glued new skin onto their own stegosaurus, adding the pointy shields down the dinosaur's back on Friday.  These shields are actually clothespins -- another muscle builder for fine motor skills.  Some of the children mastered squeezing the clothespins quickly, others never quite got the hang of it (lost interest before mastering).  These dinosaurs came home on Friday -- please supervise their clothespin squeezing until you can tell their fingers know how to do it and chances are slimmer that they will accidentally pinch themselves with the clothes pin.

Thank you also to Ruby and to Levi for sharing some great dinosaur books.  I love a great story -- especially one that I can share with our class of kindergarteners!

Coming soon ... next week's Peek!
truly,   Cathy