Our school agers have been very interested in learning more about dinosaurs through exploration and play. Lucas M. has brought in lots of dinosaurs from home in many different colours, shapes, textures and sizes, and kindly shared them with his peers.
One morning, Lucas, Paisley and Chloe B. brought the dinosaurs into the sandbox. As the children were playing, Lucas exclaimed, “guys! Let’s bury the dinosaurs and then we can try to find them in the sand to dig them up like fossils!”.
The children buried the dinosaurs together by digging small holes in the sand and dumping sand over top of the dinosaurs. As the children uncovered a part of the dinosaur from the sand, they would try to guess which dinosaur they had just
found before fully uncovering it. As Lucas saw a small head and a long neck he shouted out “I think this is the brachiosaurus!”.
Lucas pointed out identifying features about each dinosaur such as the tyrannosaurs rex’s short arms, and stated that the brachiosaurus had such a long neck. Paisley wondered if we could search for some rocks in the playground and use those to pretend to be the dinosaur fossils to bury in the sand with the dinosaurs. This was a great way for the children to connect through play and practice cooperation while using their imagination to develop each other’s thoughts and ideas about the fossils.
To extend the children’s learning and build on the interest they have shown in fossils, we offered the children some clay with both big and small dinosaur figures. This presented a great opportunity to explore the textures on the dinosaur figures from their bodies to their teeth. As the children explored and experimented with different levels of pressure and pushed the dinosaur’s feet into the clay, creativity sparked. The children went beyond footprints with the dinosaur fossils. Paisley began to press the clay over a dinosaur’s back. Aaryan had an idea and began to press the dinosaur’s teeth into the clay, noticing the depth and the texture this created. As a group, we made observations about the dinosaurs and the fossils and engaged in meaningful dialogue. Aaryan proudly shared his unique fossil creation with his peers, and Mia said “I want to try.”
Together, we discovered that some of the dinosaurs have much smaller and smoother teeth. Aaryan noted this and said “the t-rex that I used has the sharpest teeth, see?” by comparing the clay with the t-rex’s teeth imprints to the others. Paisley said “I want to try to get this dinosaur’s horns in my fossil” as she pushed the triceratops’ horns into the clay.
Aaryan said “I am going to try with the t-rex’s tail now” and Paisley pointed out that the fossil of the t-rex tail and the triceratops’ horns looked very similar and it was hard to tell the difference. This activity provided a wonderful opportunity to engage in a conversation with lots of comparative language and supported the children’s curiosity as they were able to transfer a variety of textures from the dinosaurs onto their own unique piece of clay.
As the children continue their interest in dinosaurs, we will continue to engage in meaningful conversations and activities that prompt the children’s creativity and imagination.