You would think such gigantic things would send young children cowering. Any rational person could easily assume that dinosaurs, in the minds of young children, may be put in the same scary category as monsters.

 
Here’s where kids surprise you. Most kids love dinosaurs. My children can’t get enough of dinosaur fossils. Dinosaurs capture their imagination like nothing else, (except maybe superheroes). Give them a new book about dinosaurs and you’ll hear nothing but a zillion “What’s this one called? ” questions.

DIY Dinosaur Fossils: Preschool Science

 
With dinosaurs, you can’t escape learning about fossils.

 
Learning about fossils is a great introduction to exploring history and the Earth’s past.

Learning Outcomes

 
Young children should understand that:

• Fossils are preserved clues left from a plant or animal that lived long ago.
• Each fossil tells a story and helps us understand how life has changed on Earth.
• Fossils do not have to be bones or parts of plants, but can be many things, such as nests, footprints, and even animal droppings.
• Many fossils are preserved parts of living things that are extinct. Extinct means it is no longer living and none of its kind is left on Earth.
• Fossils can form in many ways, and the process takes millions of years.
• A palaeontologist is a scientist who studies fossils and the remains of all life forms.

Suggested Learning Experience: DIY Dinosaur Fossils

 
To make your own dinosaur fossils, you’ll need: toy dinosaurs; a small cup of instant coffee; 3/4 cup cold water, 1 cup flour, 6 tbsps of salt; a baking tray; and baking paper.

 
Mix the instant coffee, flour, salt and water together to make a dough. (The coffee smells so good!)

 
The dough needs to be wet, but not so wet that it sticks to your fingers.

 
Eye an amount of dough you think you’ll need for your dinosaur imprint.

 
Place the dough on top of the baking tray lined with baking paper and flatten it with your palm.

 
Take your dinosaur and  press it gently into the dough to make an imprint.

 
Bake the DIY dinosaur fossils at low heat, (we did ours at 150C) for a few hours, (we took 3-4 hours).

 
Remove from the oven and leave to cool. The DIY dinosaur fossils will harden more when cooled.

N & M: 4 years, 4 months
E: 2 years, 3 months

The post DIY: Dinosaur Fossils by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

Ingredients

1 part baby bath (I used a no more tears variety)
1 part water

Method

Place the ingredients together in a jar and shake it vigorously to mix.

How We Played

There was the usual waving of the arms and running around to pop bubbles, but the boys decided today that they wanted to catch some bubbles in cups too.

They tried and tried but could not catch any bubbles in their cups. What were they to do? Only what four year old and two year old boys could do; stomp on those bubbles (of course)!

Notes from the Trenches

The above solution of one part baby bath and one part water works very well. Consistently rich bubbles and lots of them. It works so well that I’m certain the 1:1 ratio of baby bath to water can be diluted slightly so you don’t need to use quite so much baby bath, and still get lots of consistently rich bubbles.

The beauty of using a no more tears variety of bubble bath for this bubble solution is if it does get into their eyes, it’s not so painful. And to top it off, I now have a garden that smells like baby bath; calming and delightful!

N&M: 3 years, 11 months
E: 1 year, 10 months
May 2012

The post Baby Bath Bubble Solution by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

Perhaps influenced by these occasional Easter Show flash backs, I spotted some great agricultural ideas from last week’s Weekly Kids’ Co-op.

Mrs. Karen’s Preschool made some DIY Mud (sand+oatmeal+paint) for their pigs. They have lots of other great animal crafts to check out too.

Continuing with the earth theme, A Childhood List made some Sand Dough, (it looks like wet sand and holds its’ shape well). I can’t wait to give it a go myself.

I could not go past this wonderful science activity, Inside A Flower by Moon Sprig. They used real flowers to learn what’s inside a flower. What brilliant hands-on learning.

The post Weekly Kids’ Co-op: Agriculture by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

Materials

2 clean empty mini yoghurt tubs
glue (I used my hot glue gun)
offcuts of scrapbook paper (to wrap around the yoghurt containers)
velcro
knife
scissors
counters

Method

Glue paper around the yoghurt tubs.
Making sure your slots are large enough for your counters to fit into them: cut a horizontal slot into one of the tubs and cut a vertical slot into the other.
Stick velcro onto the tops of the tubs so the two containers can stick to each other.

How we played

Pick up counters and post them into the box, navigating both the horizontal and vertical slots.

Continue posting all the counters till there isn’t any left.
Then open up your postbox to empty out the counters so you can play again.
(Opening and closing the postbox proved just as entertaining as posting the counters).

You could extend the activity by having races with each other, (more than one counter postbox is required for this), or post the counters with your eyes shut.

E: 1 year, 9 months

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