idea..

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Home : 2007 : April : 16

idea..
By ma-bethany

i would also do a science lesson. i do this lesson every year, and it's always a huge hit with my kids (no matter the age!)

it's basically a lesson on dinosaur fossils.

1. introduce vocabulary they might
hear - paleontologist, fossils, excavation etc. (you can find more words when you preview the following story for yourself).

2. read Magic School Bus: In the time of Dinosaurs ( I think that's it). read it aloud, but i always stop where they get to the fossil sight and are doing the excavation. it's about midway thru. i don't get into the dinosaur bones or whatever it is the

rest of the book is about.

3. students participate in their own excavation. give each kid a chocolate chip cookie and a couple of toothpicks. tell them that hte cookie is the fossil site, and they need to excavate the chocolate chips from the "rock." they aren't allowed to turn and move hte cookie, because in the field you can't turn the rocks!

4. a big part of science is observing. so have the kids start off by observing their "site" and have them draw what they see. then give them about 3 minutes to start digging. stop them a few minutes later, and have them go back and record their new observations. you can do this a few times. you could create some sort of observation sheet for it. i'd send mine to you, but we're not in school this week.

5. at the end, discuss how this could be related to a real dinosaur dig.

** i always tell the kids that they are not allowed to eat the cookie. it's a science project, and we never eat science materials. they don't like the idea, but then at the end i always let them eat the cookie :)

GOOD LUCK TO YOU!!!