When paleontologists discover fossils, they use the imprints to learn more about dinosaurs' behaviors and how they may have looked.  Museums build structures that display dinosaur skeletons to show how big or small they were.  During this Invitation to Create, children used pasta noodles and glue to construct their own dinosaur models.  
We matched lower case and uppercase letters in our journals.  Free time they cut, colored, played with links, pegs and letter robots.  

We learned dinosaurs all had different sized feet.  Today we created dino feet by cutting them out and then decorating them.  We tried walking like dinosaurs with our big feet. 
The younger children used bears to count, sort, stack and form letters. They also participated in the letter sound and match activity we did as a group.  The older kids help the littles with letter and sound recognition.  

Today we made dinosaur tails!  We learned that dinosaur tails can be long, short or even spiked.  We made our dinosaur tails with paper strips. Each child decided if they wanted a long, medium or short tail.  We used crayons, scissors and glue to make our dinosaur tails.  As a group we picked out red links and made a very long dinosaur tail together!  We also played "Where is my tail?"  They chose a dinosaur card and added links to create tails.  Some kids matched the links to color of dinosaur and others made really long tails!  We had discussions about who had the longest tail, how many links they used and what colors they used.  
We also worked on the letter Vv.  

​Like birds, all dinosaurs were hatched from eggs. During this invitation to create, children chose how to design and "crack" their eggs. They explored ways to show that their eggs were hatching with scissors or by tearing them with their hands. Most simply colored their eggs, which is perfect. Through the process of open-ended art, they learned to celebrate each other's ideas. Cracked Dino eggs! We decorated and "cracked" Dino eggs. I asked the question, how big do you think a dinosaur egg would be? Some kids said tiny and some said very, very big!
We made dinosaur headbands. We discussed that dinosaurs heads were many different sizes and shapes. They all had eyes and mouths.

Have a Happy Valentine's Day! 

We made a letter craft, Dd is for dinosaur.  The kids used dot markers, shapes, and markers to create their own letter dinosaur.  We also tried stencils again this week!
We finished off the week building letters using dinosaur bones.  The kids loved this activity.  Have a great weekend! 

​The Stegosaurus is known for the 17 plates it had on its back and tail. Some scientist believe the plates were not used for protection but rather to regulate its temperature. Today the kids decided how to design a dinosaur with a paper plate, scissors, paper, markers, and wiggle eyes. They followed their own ideas and creativity. Through this process, children were able to take creative risks without following specific steps.
Today we built with positional words. The kids used dinosaurs, leaves, rocks, and a volcano. They selected a card and built behind, in front of, under, and in between.