Hi! does anybody have anygood ideas for a fossil/ dinosaur unit? I want something fun, i have 14 boys and 6 girls in my class. The boys are all into dinosaurs. Any ideas or websites would greatly be appreciated!
My cooperating teacher used chocolate chip cookie dough and toothpicks as a way for students to explore what it's like to be a paleontologist. Very carefully, they had to dig out the chocolate chips with their toothpicks. Our students did this because they were getting a visit from a real paleontologist, but this would be an engaging lesson to use to explore what it is a paleontologist does!
I also give them a plastic dinosaur ( I have 5 sons) that they investigate. They look it up in the books that we have and find out what era did it live in? was it a omnivore, carnivore, herbivore? how big was it? how much did it weigh? what were its predators? etc... they write a report and present it to the class....over achievers can do more than one.
they love it!
Ok -phooey, it won't let me attach if you pm me with your email address I'll send it to ya!
I already finished my dino/fossil unit! I had my students do the same report as mrssimon2gr. I love the chocolate chip idea! I will use it next year! Thank you for sharing!!!
I've used Chips Ahoy cookies for this. Students used toothpicks and small paintbrushes to chip away carefully to try to get as many whole chips as possible. They sorted into whole chips and parts and then graphed the results.
I too have used chocolate chip cookies and tooth picks before. However, this year I used brownies and mixed nuts. I bought a cheap brownie mix and some mixed nuts (bought in bulk from our neighborhood Sprouts grocery store). I made the brownies with the nuts mixed in. I divided the 9x12 pan into 6 sections (rocks). Each group of 3 or 4 students (paleontologists) recieved 1 rock, some tongue depressor type craft sticks, Q tips, and tooth picks to do their digging. They were to dig out the fossils and then assemble to fossils into an imaginary animal. They used digital cameras-one per group-to record their progress and their "discovery" which they glued to card stock. They also sued AlphaSmarts to write about their discovery-What it was, where and when it lived, what it ate, and who was its predator. They then imported their pictures and text into a Publisher document to create an article about their discovery. We had so much fun!! I will do it again this way.
I LOVE that idea! We just started our Fossil unit. I'll definately have to use that idea.
One thing I always do is make our own fossils. I got the idea from the Bill Nye video, Dinosaurs: Those Big Boneheads. You take a sponge (not the foamy kind) and cut it into whatever shape you'd like. Then you place it in sand. Cover the sponge with sand. Saturate water with salt (minerals) and pour the water all over the sand and fossil. Let the water evaporate for a few days then dig out the dinosaur. It will be hard from all of the salt! If you are using Open Court, it goes very well with the first story, Fossils Tell of Long Ago when they are talking about how a fish becomes a fossil.
Hi !everyone thank you for sharing, i will totally do the chocolate chip idea!I love pro-teacher everyone has great ideas! I might even do the sponge one since we have a big sandlot were the kids can go digging for dino bones!
i used to teach 4th:
i've also done mining in cookies before....
the kids like it...its good cuz u can predict how many u think u might get/tie in probability
for fossils: crayon rubbings of things like leaves
also you can make fossils by buying sculpey/clay and getting seashells or leaves, etc and press into clay, leaves an imprint....you can even stack them on top of eachother to show layering....
to get the concept across of fossils and layers i have students act it out with hand motions(I have ELL kids)...bend arm at elbow and repeatedly move arms up flat above eachother while saying layers......they really get the concept this way(i just had to use it in third grade to teach the layers of cubes in volume)
I have put sand in a wide dishpan along with washed and dried chicken bones of various sizes. Then I create a grid with strings placed vertically and horizontally across the dishpan. Students use spoons, forks, and mini make-up type to carefully dig outand dust the bones, marking the location on paper that has a grid. This applies math and mapping skills as well. Kids are very interested in the work of the paleontologists!
Just wanted to add that my kids also do the chocolate chip cookie activity each year and love it. This year I used the "Chunk" type of chocolate chips that had dark and white chocolate. The kids were more successful at getting out the chunks without breaking them, and we also made predictions and kept a tally table of how many of each type of fossil. We called the white ones 'teeth' and the brown ones 'bones'. Look for the cookies with the big chunks.
Another fun activity is to make plaster of paris fossils. Have your students save milk cartons from lunch to use to hold the plaster. Use shells, leaves, a chicken bone or even the feet of a plastic dinosaur to make imprints and let dry. It's a cute "souvenir" from your fossil unit. We then talk about two types fo fossils: one being the actual artifact, like the "bones" and "teeth" in the cookies, and the other being an imprint fossil.
One more thing I just remembered. I bring my husband's 50 ft. tape measure to school, and we go outside and measure off how long and tall different types of dinosaurs are. Your students will be shocked when they see for themselves just how long a twenty-five foot stegosaurus really was. Then you hold up a walnut to show them the size of its brain by comparison. They will be amazed.
The Discovery Center ..... Using a page I found in a Crayola Kids magazine, (but it wouldn't be hard to make up your own) I made outlines of several different dino bodies, tails, heads and legs. We ran them off in different bright colors and had spikes, ridges, crests etc that the kids could add. They assembled their "newly discovered" dino on a mountainous, swampy, jungle or rocky background and then together we use a dictionary of greek/latin terms I found in a dino fact book for inventing a new name. I print the new name for them and the translation.
We also do a research center in small groups with the librarian, where they record facts like a paleontologist ... size, food, habitat, description, interesting facts, and they get to illustrate their report by photocopying an illustration from their research book.
For the math center (first grade) we used dinosaur fruit snacks as measuring tools, so they measured each item on their worksheet (pencil, felt pen, reader, paper cup, shoe, friends hand) using first the dino snacks (wash hands before starting activity) then a ruler. When finished they get to eat the snacks.
For the writing center, they write a dino story in a 5 page booklet, which was pre-cut into a dino shape with a cover made with the wonderful dino-skin paper available at the teachers store. (made by Royer I think)
For the final center we put all our dinosaur puzzles, rub ons, models and tracers, together and called it the paleontology center, because they were putting dinos together.
I had students do a dinosaur report, complete with 3D project (report done in school, project done at home).
I went back and forth about what to do with their final copy so I created a 'dinosaur baseball card' template. I printed a final draft for each student (changing the dinosaur name on the template).
Students transferred information from their rough draft onto their card.
Then I photocopied each students' dinosaur card and am putting them into books that each student will take home.
The kids love it, and are very excited about getting their own copy of the book. I'll attach the files I used here.
Here's the rough draft. I send it home but we try to do the majority of the research in class. I print a copy of the Enchanted Learning (zoomdinosaurs.com) information page to get them going.
03-19-2008, 08:38 PM
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