Dinosaur Descriptive Writing and Fossil Find!!!

I do not even know where to begin with how much fun this day was! I surprised the students by bringing in an entire bag of assorted dinosaurs. One by one I pulled them out of the bag and our class described them in detail. After all of the dinosaurs were set out on the table I allowed each one to come up and pick (they were chosen in order from their ranking in behavior cards). 

After selecting their dinosaur, the students sat down and examined them closely! 

Next we learned about the different parts of the dinosaur. I drew a dinosaur model on the board and labeled each part one by one. After we named the part each student found that part on their very own dinosaur (or observed that their dinosaur did not have that trait).

 The students learned about sloppy copies. They all went right to work drafting their couple sentences to tell about their dinosaurs. Some students stuck to simple describing sentences while others challenged themselves and went more in detail.

After students wrote their sloppy copy and had it checked and corrected by me they were given a new sheet to write their sentences on. Students took their time and wrote as neatly as possible! Their final task was to illustrate their picture.

 

The kiddos took their time making every detail perfect. They really enjoyed drawing their own dinosaur and got really creative with it. Many of their chose to label their dinosaur and used the board for some extra help. The final product was amazing and they were all very proud of theirs when we got to take them out and display them in the hall!!!

  

In the afternoon things got even more fun. I told the kiddos that if they worked hard I would have a surprise for them in the afternoon. They clearly deserved it after their amazing writing. I busted out my hardhat and told them all we were going to become certified paleontologists (can you tell I cant hide my own excitement for this project) and dig for dinosaur fossils. But before we could start we had to talk about how we would do this, and safety of course!

First, I passed out a paper towel and chocolate chip cookie to each student. They figured out that they were going to have to get the chocolate chips out of the cookie. I asked them how they were going to do this without damaging the "fossil."

They figured out that they would need some sort of tools. We talked about what tools real paleontologists might use and what tools we could use instead. Next, they got out magnifying glasses and inspected the "rocks" they would be digging into. This is were it really got fun!

We got to learn all about magnifying glasses and how they worked. Students explored and experimented by getting up close with the rocks they would be chipping into as well as other objects around the room. One student figured out how it would make their eye bigger! 

 Before you knew it the whole class was figuring out new and creative things to do with it. This was one of those moments that I just had to go with and opened a whole new lesson I was not expecting. They LOVED it!

I could not resist either!!!

Then it was off to work. Each student used their toothpick and magnifying glass to carefully dig into their cookie. Students soon realized how much of a challenge it was to excavate the chocolate chips with just a toothpick. They were not allowed to use their hands to pick up the cookie because we discussed how it would be impossible to hold up a giant rock in real life. 

While we worked on slowly getting the chocolate chip cookies the kiddos started to realize what "being patient" meant. Many of the kiddos told me they knew they did NOT ever want to dig up dinosaur bones because it took way too much time. I could barely stifle a laugh when they said this considering they had only been working for about 10 minutes! Some of the students however found this activity very calming and spent a great amount of time and detail getting every speck of cookie off. 

 This little paleontologist spent a great deal of time making sure every one of her "bones" was perfectly cleared. 

This kiddo kept her work area nice and neat!

At the end of the day these little "paleontologists" filled out a sheet recording how many "fossils" or "bones" they found in all. It was one fun and exciting day for everyone in my room and one of my favorite days so far this year!!!