Play School: Dinosaurs

Concepts: When did dinosaurs live? How do we learn about dinosaurs?

Activities/art/game: I came up with a lot of ideas for this lesson, so I'll include all of them and star the ones that I used.

Salt-dough fossils: Make a basic salt dough and use pinecones, seashells, or other common objects to make impressions. Let the salt dough dry according to the recipe.

*Dinosaur puzzle: Big B's mom gave us this awesome 3-D dinosaur puzzle a few months ago and I've been saving it for this lesson. The "bones" all snap together so you can put together a stegosaurus.

Trackway footprints: A trackway is a fossilized trail of footprints. Recreate this by dipping plastic dinosaurs or other animals feet in paint and have them walk down a piece of paper.

Fossil sensory table: Fill a sensory table (a large, shallow tupperware container, like the kind that rolls under your bed works great) with dirt, sand or mulch and hide "fossils" in it for the kids to find. You could also do this in a sand box.

*Dancing like a dinosaur: One of the books we read was about the different ways dinosaurs danced. I had a stick-"dinosaur" that I got at the dollar store for each of the kids, and they rode them and danced like the dinosaurs in the book as I read the story.

*Dig up a dinosaur: Fill muffin tins 1/3 of the way with muffin or cupcake batter, add a tiny plastic dinosaur, and cover with remaining batter. Bake as directed. After the muffins have cooled, give each child a fork and show them how to dig for their dinosaur. Make sure they don't eat it!

Books: Outside and Inside Dinosaurs by Sandra Markle; Dinosaurumpus! by Tony Mitton; Shadow of the Dinosaurs by Dennis Nolan (this one is actually pretty stupid. No, I mean really stupid); The Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs.

Songs/fingerplays: The "Dinosaur Train" theme song (my kids' favorite show!)

Snack: blueberry muffins from the same batch as the dig up a dinosaur activity--only without the plastic dinosaurs :)

This was our last week doing Play School. I can't believe how quickly the year flew by! I had such a fun time coming up with our little lesson plans and activities every other week. Play School has been such a fun way for me to spend time with my kids and to teach them a little bit every week. I'm already planning our lessons for next year! The kid we've been doing it with this year is going to be in preschool next year, and since I'm expecting a baby in November I don't really want to commit to a full group, so I will be doing a little lesson and activity twice a week with my two girls. Some of next year's topics include space, the people in my neighborhood, volcanoes, and inside my body. It'll be fun!