We are having a lot of fun with our dinosaur theme for our South Dakota state study. So far, we have made dinosaur teeth and dinosaur fossils. We also used a Smithsonian kit to excavate a T- Rex skeleton. The kit came with a sand brick that had a T-Rex skeleton replica in it for excavating with a mallet and dowel. The kit also came with goggles, but according to the directions, the goggles were for play, not for protection (?????). My kids still insisted on wearing the goggles.
R worked on the kit for about fifteen minutes and left the rest for C to finish. I think R was a little frustrated that she didn't find any of the bones, but even after C started to find them, R never had any interest in going back to the excavating. C, on the other hand, worked on this for hours! He has since decided that he wants to be a paleontologist.
After the excavation was complete, C assembled the plastic dinosaur. I have to admit that I expected better quality. The dinosaur doesn't really stay together and it barely stands up. C was pretty happy with it though. As a matter of fact, he said that this kit is one of his favorite activities of all time; he really enjoyed the process.
We followed this with the book The Field Mouse and the Dinosaur Named Sue by Jan Wahl.
A tiny field mouse lives in a burrow beneath an old bone in South Dakota until his life is turned upside down by fossil hunters. The mouse ends up in a box that is taken to the Field Museum in Chicago where he finds the dinosaur named Sue. We all enjoyed the book.
Thank you to Almost Unschoolers for recommending this book, and hop over to Adventures in Mommydom for Science Sunday!
11 comments:
That kit does look like fun! Too bad the dinosaur wasn't better quality.
The kids look so cute, as they are hard at work digging at those bones.
It looks like they had so much fun! C looks so intent on his task, and so pleased with the results :)
That's funny, we had one of those dino-dig kits in our hands yesterday, but I remembered reading bad Amazon reviews for them, so we went with a wooden dinosaur model/puzzle from B.C. Bones. It is supposed to be for ages 5 and up, but ended up being difficult for the Man of the House and I - we should have gone with the dino-dig! It's a pity you guys aren't closer, we could be doing this study together :)
There's an ancient Egypt one too. I've got a
Fossil kit to pull out sometime
My nephew likes those kits too. Abby would have no patience for something like this. LOL!
How fun! I haven't seen these kits before. (I buried plastic dinosaurs in wet sand when my oldest was in K. LOL) Stopping by from Science Sunday!
Jessy
I have this book on its way to us. I am very intrigued by the science kits but trying hard to hold out until daughter is older. I am impressed with C's persistence on his dinosaur - he is a true scientist!
This is right up my Peanut's alley! We'll be headed to the Royal Tyrell Museum in Alberta next week so that she can walk like a dinosaur with all the real dinosaur bones.
We love kits like this...who wouldn't ??? =)
This project is amazing! LOVE that they insist on wearing their goggles too :-). You are so good to do all of this cool, but educational stuff with your kids.
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