Dinosaurs Everywhere!

Dear Families,

We have had so much fun exploring dinosaurs this week in the Owl Room! This unit was sparked by the children’s enthusiasm for the dinosaur books and materials in the classroom that were used in the Science Giants enrichment class on Mondays this past session. This is an excellent example of our use of emergent curriculum practices at the Trust Center! We try to incorporate the children’s existing interests and background knowledge into the curriculum whenever possible. This helps us to create a rich curriculum that is fun for the children. In addition, because young children are concrete learners, they learn best when engaging with concepts that are relevant to them. Creating units around the children’s interests ensures that the curriculum is relevant.

One concept that we focused on this week was that dinosaurs lived a very, very long time ago and are now extinct. We also focused on learning how very big the dinosaurs were!

Books have been integral to our teaching about dinosaurs. Morah Larissa participates in the Teacher Partner Program at the Museum of Science in Boston, which allows us to borrow books and other resources from their collection. This week we read Dinosaur Bones, by Bob Barner, T is For Terrible, by Peter McCarty, and The Dinosaur, by Anna Milbourne from this collection. Those of you who are not participating in Vacation Camp this week and looking for some fun family activities might enjoy a visit to the dinosaur exhibit at the Museum of Science, as we will continue with this unit the week following vacation.

The children enjoyed drawing their favorite dinosaurs to hang up on our bulletin board this week. We also studied the different body parts of different kinds of dinosaurs. We made some comparisons to our own bodies. We discovered some similarities and differences. For example, dinosaurs had nostrils and toes just like humans! But we certainly don’t have tails! Then we did the “Dino Pokey” (to the tune of the “Hokey Pokey”), and pretended to be dinosaurs sticking our teeth, long necks, and even tails into the circle. We also learned a fun new movement poem, and practiced moving around like different kinds of dinosaurs.

At the art table this week, we have started to build a large dinosaur nest, using recycled materials such as toilet paper tubes and newspaper. When we are done building the nest, we will paint it brown. Once it is dry, we will add it to our Dramatic Play set up so that the children can pretend to be baby dinosaurs hatching from eggs. We have read a couple of books about baby dinosaurs, and they have particularly captured the children’s imagination. Working on a large collaborative art project encourages the children to build group problem-solving skills and to learn to use language to work together. Creating a large three-dimensional project builds children’s spatial awareness.

On Thursday, we had a chance to investigate how long dinosaurs really were! Morah Larissa cut lengths of yarn to the sizes of Compsognathus, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus Rex, and Brachiosaurus. First, we made some predictions about which dinosaurs might be able to fit in our classroom and school. We discovered the Triceratops could barely fit in our classroom! If there was a Triceratops sitting at Circle Time, its head would be out the doorway! Then, we went outside and took advantage of the nice weather to complete our investigation. The children sat on the sidewalk with Morah Kate, and took turns holding one end of a piece of yarn while Morah Larissa walked across the parking lot with the other end of each piece of yarn. When Shayna held one end of the yarn that was as long a Brachiasaurus, the children could barely see Morah Larissa all the way on the other side of the parking lot!

A new favorite song this week has been the “Dinosaur on Shabbat” song. The children have had a great time singing about the idea of a dinosaur showing up to celebrate Shabbat! We have also had a lot of fun walking around the synagogue. This is a great way to get a little exercise, as well as to gain comfort and familiarity with the various parts of our temple.

We have also had a lot of fun this week exploring measuring, using both formal and informal methods. Besides measuring how long real dinosaurs were, we also tried some measuring with toy dinosaurs. The children investigated some informal ways to measure the toy dinosaurs – they tried using their hands and even their shoes! Then we used a ruler to see how many inches each dinosaur was. Using measuring cups in the water table has been a fun way to experiment with measuring volume. We also used the measuring cups in our trays with cornmeal this week. Julia was worried that her friends had more cornmeal than her. Morah Larissa suggested that we might be able to use measuring to solve the problem. So we tried filling up one-cup sized measuring cups at each tray and discovered that, indeed, Julia needed more cornmeal. Finally, we have been using a scale to experiment with measuring and comparing the weight of various toys.

A favorite new song this week has been, “Where Do You Start Your Letters?” This catchy song is part of the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum, and reinforces the idea of remembering to start writing one’s letters at the top of the page. With the children singing the song as often as they are (often on their own!), we are confident they will begin to remember to slow down and carefully write their letters starting at the top.

Shabbat Shalom,
Morah Larissa and Morah Kate