Dinosaurs: The Beginning Investigations

The kids decided to investgate dinosaurs next. I set out a couple areas for them to explore while we finished up our clay inquiry. 

I created an area for them to dig for fossils. 

During Thinking, Learning and Discovering Time they started exploring. They wanted to identify some of the fossils and dinosaurs that were set out. 

Because of their love for art, I set up the painting area for them to use art to show what they noticed about dinosaurs and their skeletons.

I also set up an area for them to look closer and create observational drawings using art tools and watercolors. 

Here is an area for them to look closer and create dinosaurs through clay.

Even our engineering and math tools were being used to create dinosaurs!

The kids leisurely explored the areas and started talking about creating a dinosaur museum in our dramatic play area. As the discussion about this grew, we realized the dramatic play area was too small.  Some started talking about using other areas. After listening to their conversations, I presented an idea to them. Would they be interested in making our whole room into a dinosaur museum? They were very excited about this! I posed another question to them. What if we became experts and invited other classes into our dinosaur museum to learn all about dinosaurs? Wow! The excitement and motivation blew me away! A project was born!

All of the sudden, the interst in learning everything they could about dinosaurs took on a whole new level! Their explorations were no longer leisurely! It was amazing how much more driven they were to learn once they had a purpose for it! Stay tuned to find out how we will turn our room into a dinosaur museum!