Mrs. Simon and some of her high school students put together and presented a very educational morning all about dinosaurs for the K-2 students. Opening activities plus eight stations were used to present dinosaur facts and activities. The morning began with some opening information and a song about dinosaurs.
Each K-2 student had a sack of materials for the morning and began by making a dinosaur textured name tag using a paper plate.
Station 1 was manned by Keya K., Thomas B, and Kallie L. Their topic was How big would you be next to a dinosaur? Students put together puzzle piece fragments of a Sauroposeidon femur and then used each other to figure out how many students would equal a Sauroposeidon's height.
Station 2 was facilitated by Makayla J., Jacob B., and Feliciti O. This station was designed to help students understand how dinosaur tracks tell a story. Students learned what a trace fossil is, made a trace fossil, and then figured out the story told by dinosaur footprints.
Aubree O., Georgia R., and Cooper W. were the older helpers at Station 3 where K-2 students learned about dinosaur characteristics by reading and writing riddles about dinosaurs.
Brandon W, Ethan E., and Kayla R. were in charge of Station 4. They taught the younger students how to tell if a dinosaur was an herbivore or a carnivore based on their teeth. Students were interested to learn that some dinosaurs were like chickens and had rocks in their stomachs to help grind their food.
Station 5 tried to answer the question 'Who was smarter? T-rex or triceratops?' Cody S. Dinah C. and Addison O. helped explain how the dinosaurs were like animals today and K-2 students made a mask of their favorite of these two dinosaurs.
Station 6 asked students to think about how long ago dinosaurs lived. Brett W., Sam G. and David L. helped the younger students make a circle time chart of the evolution of life on earth.
Station 7 was named Fossils for Real and allowed students to carefully extract real fossils from rocks and identify them. Brody P., Brooke C., and Cheyenne L. helped with this station.
Station 8 completed the dinosaur story. Grayson S., Thomas B. and Kaden W. helped the K-2 students learn that dinosaurs are rarely intact when their remains are found and that dinosaur skeletons often have to be put together with missing pieces. Students brushed sand from wooden dinosaur "bones" and tried to assemble them using only what they found.
Dinosaur Day was an interesting and successful learning experience for all of the students who were involved. Mrs. Simon and her high school students deserve a big thank you for their efforts to make learning fun and hands-on during the final week of school!