Jurassic Park Science

I planned a Jurassic Park themed science afternoon inspired by Elementary Shenanigans post.  I've been really excited about the idea of "setting the stage to engage" lately. This entails background sounds, hands on activities, costumes, props and flipping the classroom to look like a new environment. 

To set the stage here, I turned our desks into Jeeps and gave them all worker hats with Jurassic Park symbols on them. I put a big picture of dinosaurs on the board and played rainforest background noise. 

 I ordered a block with t-rex bones in it and they used tools and water to extract the bones.

 

 

 

We had dinosaur snot to play with! I made a Borax based slime with yellow liquid watercolor. 

 

  

We pressed dinosaurs into play dough to see what their fossils would look like. 

 

 

We discovered dinosaur bones from a stegosaurus in sand and then tried to assemble our 3D puzzle. 

 

Our final and most popular activity was dinosaur dung.  I used brownie mix for the dung and made two trays, one for a carnivore and one for an herbivore.  I put leaves, berries, and sticks in one and plastic bones and feathers in the other. They had to identify which dung was an herbivore and which was a carnivore. 

March Buddies

We met with our 3rd grade buddies to plot on how to catch a leprechaun.  Then we made a fun craft that looks like the leprechaun got stuck in a pot of gold!

The End of our True Stories

We finished up our unit on true stories last week and I am so amazed at the progress the class made. This is always one of my favorite units because it happens in the middle of the year when the students start becoming more independent and really understanding sentences and parts of a story.  They continue to amaze me!

Here are a couple books to get a peek at our work.  I LOVE their stories.  These are totally independent too, I come around and conference individually with students during this time to set goals and talk about their writing.  They sound out and create stories all on their own after we meet as a group and learn a new skill or strategy to try.

"Football"

I was watching the Super Bowl. 

Touchdown Panthers!

I felt crazy.

Hawaii

I am at the beach.

We went to the beach.

Finally we got to Grandpa and Nana's.

"I Was Bowling"

I felt silly. I was going bowling. 

I knocked down the pins.

I felt happy.

"Clothes"

It is hard to get dressed. 

Shirts are hard to get on. 

Jeans are hard to get on.

I felt like I wanted to get on my clothes.