I haven’t updated what we’ve been doing in our dinosaur unit for some time now. I remember now why we stopped the unit studies in the first place. They are super fun and we love doing them. They work well. But they are tiring and I burn out quickly. Some of the things we have done over the past few weeks:

• Checked our chicken bones in their vinegar baths most days and recorded the results
• Read pages 52-110 of Jurassic Park
• Discussed topographical maps
• Listened to Lyrical Life Science topographic map song (during which the children did some “dino dancing”)
• Made topographical maps using the information on page 53 of Jurassic Park
• Discussed post-mortem contraction and looked at contracted raptor “fossil” plate
• Cameron wrote problem, hypothesis, and procedure on science project backboard
• Ani wrote the information under problem, hypothesis, and half of procedure on science project backboard
• Dino Dig (see picture below)
• Discussed chaos theory and demonstrated it with dripping/running faucet
• Used the Let’s Explore Dinosaurs book to determine which model dinosaur was a sauropod (which led to Ani trying to identify all of our model dinosaurs)
• Discussed warm vs. cold blooded
• Made a fern “fossil” rubbing and labeled it
• Discussed and made a line graph
• Discussed egg teeth
• “Hatched” a Hatchin’ Grow Dinosaur
• Assembled and glued Dino Dig skeletons
• DNA kit (extracted DNA from an onion)
• Listened to Dinosaur Rap CD

Ani and Cameron excavating dinosaurs. Ani got a T Rex and Cameron got a Triceratops.