Our Dinosaur Inquiry - Part 2

This week we have continued on with our dinosaur research.  After reading about Triceratops, also known as "three horned face," we crafted our own little three horned faces out of egg cartons, pipe cleaners and a muffin wrapper for the frill. 

We discovered that Ankylosaurus was entirely covered in thick boney plates to help protect against carnivores.  We were very curious about the boney club on its tail. We worked together to transform our dinosaur tails into a tail with a club.  Of course we had to test the tails out to see what it would be like to protect ourselves against carnivores. 

A few of the students had noticed that many of the dinosaurs we have studied so far have been large, plant eating dinosaurs. So, the next dinosaur we learned about was the exact opposite. Velociraptor was a small, meat eating dinosaur that ran extremely fast and was covered in feathers. To help us remember what was interesting about Velociraptor, we sketched feathers to help create a class Velociraptor.  We also took advantage of the nice weather and went outside and had Raptor races with our buddies!

Each time we learn about a new dinosaur, we are very curious about the size.  With Mr. V's help, we have been able to visually see how long each dinosaur was. First, we place a cut out dinosaur head on the wall.  Then, we use a meter stick to count out how many meters long the dinosaur was and place the tail on the wall to show the length.  Just for fun, we did some non-standard measurement and used our bodies to measure with.  

Our Dinosaur Inquiry - Part 1

Another scientific inquiry has sparked in the kindergarten room. DINOSAURS!!!  After learning what a scientist does when we studied colour, we easily transitioned into being Paleontologists.  We were very excited to start making discoveries using all all the different tools that a paleontologist might use.  We looked for bones, dug them up, brushed them off and then tried to figure out what kind of dinosaur they might belong to.

We explored another dig site using our imaginations and problem solving skills. A 5x5 grid was made on the floor with tape.  A black plastic bucket was placed upside down in each square.  We imagined that the buckets were big hills. Each student had to choose two coordinates and then go "dig" in the correct square. We discovered, bones, rocks, leaves and sometime and empty square.

After digging up all those bones, we couldn't wait to discover more about each dinosaur.

Our dinosaur research started with Tyrannosaurus Rex.  We learned that T-Rex had up to 60 long sharp teeth.  One friend shared that a T-Rex tooth is as big as a banana!  We wanted to know what 60 T-Rex teeth would look like.  As a group, we counted the teeth out in groups of 5. (We practised making tally marks with the teeth.) 

         

The next dinosaur we studied was Parasaurolophus. The first thing we noticed was the big crest on the top of his head.  Palaeontologists have suggested that the crest may have been used to make a loud sound like a horn.  We thought this was pretty cool and wondered if we could make sounds like a Parasaurolophus.  We used three different lengths of tubes and attached a paper cone shape to the end.  Then the fun and the hooting began!!

One of the most talked about and recognized dinosaur in our class is the long neck.  We discovered that there are many different kinds of long necks or sauropods. All sauropods have the same body shape, long tail, long neck and 4 sturdy legs in common.   We were challenged to work together and try to build a long neck to help create a dinosaur sculpture in our classroom.  

We were given wooden stir sticks, pipe cleaners, straws, corrugated cardboard, poster paper construction paper, tape and big pieces of vinyl to create with.  We got right to work and tried very hard to make sure everyone's ideas were being heard. 

"We need to make the neck bones first."

"It needs to be longer so the long neck can get the leaves from the top of the tree."

"We are taping on skin (cellophane) over the bones."

"We need to make a strong base so it can stand up."

"More tape!"

"Should we cut the bone off? " "No, we need to get another piece of paper."

The Morning Class

              

  

              

               

The Afternoon Class

A great start to building our VERY big dinosaur sculpture!

Egg Shakers in Music

We are very lucky to have Miss Versteeg as our music teacher.  She is always coming up with creative ways for us to have fun in the music room.  She has been teaching us to listen carefully and to distinguish between different sounds.

To practise our music listening skills,  we each got to make an egg shaker. Miss Versteeg put out six different materials to fill our eggs with.  After we had filled our egg and decorated them with stickers, we began to listen carefully to the sound that each shaker made. We noticed, that each of these materials sound different, and if you listen closely, you can tell what is inside each one.