dinosaurus MAXIMUS!

dinosaurus maximus found us discussing fossils as we did simulated fossil rubbings with crayons–we expanded on prior knowledge to redefine “fossil” as not just dinosaur bones, but also ancient insects, plants, prints from animals or plants, and sea life as well.

we colored an Apatosaurus as an introduction to carnivore/herbivore review…we also discussed the physical differences between meat-eaters and plant-eaters to help us predict and hypothesize in future classification activities.

free play included a fossil dig station where students could dig up “bones”, brush them off with soft brushes, examine them with hand lenses, and then try to rebuild the dinosaur–very fun.

our book today was “How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight” which features a variety of dinos and is very fun to act out together while we read, i.e. slam your tail and pout, wave your head from side to side, etc. most of our students are pretty familiar with this book (and some of the dino names) so they get to be “experts” as we read…for example, Triceratops has three horns for easy identification (which leads to the discussion of “tri” meaning “three”, tricycle, triangle, triad). Apatosaurus is featured again in this book, along with a number of others, including Dimetrodon, who isn’t really a “true” dinosaur at all!

needless to say, it was upROARiously fun!

key words included: carnivore, herbivore, omnivore, apatosaurus, triceratops, dimetrodon, extinct, and fossil

processes discussed: how fossils form, dinosaur extinction, the visual body differences between meat-eaters and plant-eaters, and what is paleontology

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