Dinosaur Explorers

We had a blast at our Dinosaur Explorers camp this week!

On Monday, we learned what are dinosaurs.  There are 4 rules to be a dinosaur.  

1. Dinosaurs do not live in the ocean or water. 

2. Dinosaurs cannot fly.

3. Dinosaurs do not do funny pushups. 

4. Dinosaurs do not have hair or fur. 

We talked about the 4 rules and each camper had a dinosaur or dinosaur friend.  We sorted them into 2 groups and put the dinosaurs on one felt board and the dinosaur friends (non-dinosaurs) onto another felt board. 

We learned that dinosaurs hatch out of eggs.  We made a dinosaur hatching egg craft.  

We also used vinegar to squirt on baking soda dinosaur eggs to find a surprise inside...a dinosaur!

A dinosaur was inside!

We also played a game of Dinosaur Says when we were outside at snack. 

Sauropods were herbivores!

On Tuesday, we learned about herbivore and carnivore dinosaurs.  We went and looked at different dinosaur teeth in the Museum exhibits.  Sharp, pointy teeth means it ate meat and more flat teeth means it ate plants. We also learned how to tell the difference between a tooth and a claw.  If it has a line in it (for a blood vessel), it's a claw not a tooth! We made ferocious T. rex hats to wear and painted a cast of our own T. rex tooth.  

On Wednesday, we learned about dinosaur footprints.  We looked at the fossil footprints in the Museum and also went outside and found out that some dinosaurs had left footprints outside!

We made our own dinosaur trackway stamp art.  

We also looked at the different sizes of dinosaurs and saw that some were REALLY big and some were pretty small!

On Thursday, we learned all about paleontologists.  We learned what tools Pete and Paula need to go on a dig.

We made our own Paleontologists hats and then went on a fossil dig.  We found dinosaur bones!

Searching carefully for fossils

A fossil!

Playing with dinosaurs

On Friday, we learned about fossils.  A fossil is something that is not alive anymore and is what is left of a dinosaur or another animal or plant. The only thing we have left of the dinosaurs are fossils.  We made our own dinosaur skeletons out of paper tubes.  We also got to play with some fossil play doh and made different dinosaur shapes.

Building a dinosaur skeleton

A Stegosaurus 

As we were reading the book Bones, Bones Dinosaur Bones by Byron Barton, we heard a knock on the door.  A paleontologist left us a package of fossils to look at. 

A paleontologist left us a package!

A mastodon tooth

Dinosaur Skin Impression

Sauropod Dinosaur Skin Impression

And put together our own dinosaur skeleton craft.

Putting together the dinosaur skeleton

A museum exhibit around the dinosaur