When Colton asked the educators if we could bring dinosaurs into the classroom, the educators immediately asked our Preschool classroom if we could borrow them. It was interesting to observe the children use their imagination t
o create different story lines with the dinosaurs. Colton and Caden created their own story, which they later turned into a movie with the same concept of Godzilla. Devyn, Emma, Everly, and Brielle used the doll house and supplies to create a cozy home for the dinosaurs and began to play as if the dinosaurs were humans with baby dolls as their babies. This had the educators wondering, what is it about dinosaurs that is so interesting? How can we continue this interest to further the children’s learning and exploration?
The next day, the educators brought in a tuff tray with fake grass, logs, rocks, and some blue felt. The children quickly surrounded the table discussing the various materials they saw and different ways they can use them.
“We should put rocks around the watering hole to keep the water there.” Caden suggested.
“The T-Rex should be standing behind the logs kind of hiding so the other dinosaurs can’t see him before he eats them all!” Finley responded.
Once the habitat was all set up, the children were discussing which animals were carnivores, which were omnivores and which ones ate both meat and vegetables. Spencer suggested that they use the small rocks as dinosaur eggs, and discussed how all dinosaurs hatch from eggs! There were lots of conversations heard about the various habitats that the dinosaurs lived in.
“Was there snow when dinosaurs lived?” Finley pondered. The children began to talk about this and Colton insisted that there was always snow in the world. The children then discussed the Ice Age, where everything was frozen over.
“There were big volcanos with dinosaurs too! That’s how they died!” One of the children shouted!
“Actually, there was an asteroid that killed ALL the dinosaurs!” Colton responded.
Following the discussion of the volcanos, the educators thought that it would be fun to make our own volcano. Discussing with the children, we decided that using a paper mache around a bottle would be our best option. We researched and discussed the materials needed for the educators to collect and prepare. The next day, the children found the table full of various types of paper, watered down glue, tape, and thin paper. The educators decided to allow the children to discuss and choose amongst each other how they were going to create the base of their volcano.
The children began crumpling up pieces of paper to put around the base.
“Wow this is a lot of paper!” Elora exclaimed.
“How do you think we can keep the paper in place?” Stephanie wondered.
“TAPE!” Riggins shouted!
As Elora and Riggins held the balls of paper in place, Kyrielle took the tape roll and began to tape all around the balled-up paper to the base. As the children worked together, using trial and error, bouncing ideas off of each other, the volcano began to take shape.
“We want to make sure this actually looks like a volcano.” Elora said.
“Maybe this side could use some more paper?” Alayna wondered. The children worked together to tape more balls of paper around the one side of the base to ensure the volcano had a good shape.
Once the volcano took shape, the children began to cut small strips of thin paper, dip into the watered-down glue and carefully placed each strip onto the crumpled-up paper creating the shape of a volcano.
It was interesting to observe all the children working together as a team to create a volcano and dinosaur habitat. Through communication, using each other’s skills and knowledge, the children created a volcano, they took turns to add the ingredients to erupt the volcano, and they continued to use the volcano within their dramatic play and dinosaur habitats. The children had also had discussions about fossils and how fossils were created. The children discovered that fossils can be created when volcanic ash buries a living thing. As the children continued to discuss their knowledge about fossils, the educators brought out some shells, different types of clay, and other rocks, and sticks. The children immediately began to use the sea shells, rocks, and sticks to create their own fossils, some of the children used the play dinosaurs to create fossils using their footprints. Knowing that fossils take time, the children suggested we bury the fossils to dig out at a later date.
This sparked a conversation about how sand is created and how different elements (weather) will break down big rocks to create sand. The educators brought out some different clay that had become very hard over the time it had been stored. The children found different tools to use to act as various weather, hammers, sticks, rocks, hands, to break down the clay and create their own sand. Elora had suggested we use a sifter to separate the big pieces of clay from the already made sand to help make the process go faster. Kyrielle began using the claw (back of a hammer) to crumble the clay and create the sand.
In the end, the children created a fun scene out of Jurassic Park! There was water, trees, sand, rocks, a volcano, fossils, anything you could imagine being part of a dinosaur world, the children had created. It was amazing observing the children working together, the conversations that were being had, building relationships, and the problem solving that was happening, was something that was new to our classroom. Very rarely do the children all seem to be interested in the same things, however, with the dinosaurs, the children continued to be intrigued, learn from each other, and work together as a team. Together, and without realizing it, the children created an environment encompassing the four pillars of How Does Learning Happen; belonging, engagement, expression, and well-being.
I wonder what other interests the children will spark to help continue to build relationships and an environment rich in learning, growth, and love.