Montessori Inspired Dinosaur Activity Trays for Preschoolers

This is a long overdue post because we’ve been doing a lot of outdoor activities lately.  Most kids are really fascinated with dinosaurs, especially my eldest who’s obsessed with these prehistoric animals.  So last Easter break, we revisited some of our dinosaur activities and introduced new ones to Vito.  Here’s a roundup of our dinosaur activities which both of the kids enjoyed during the break and I hope your kids will love this too.

Safari Ltd Mammal Skulls Discovery Play

The boys love these mammal skulls which Safari Ltd has sent us!  They specifically love to bury these in the kinetic sand and play scavenger hunt or play-pretend to be scientists.  This is one of the afterschool activities the boys enjoy playing together and working independently.

Introducing Simple Machines to Kids (with Free Printable)

This summer, Mavi requested that we do some science lessons that we haven’t touched before (math’s a different story though).  Thus previously, we had types of fossils and a review of clouds.  Last week, he was watching the story of the caveman on how they were able to build tools that helped them build houses, kill animals for food and clothing and for protection.  As you can see, in his spare time, he loves to spend time in the yard and looks for ways to create an axe using a stick and a stone.  With this interest, I introduced him to simple machines.

Hands-on Learning on the Types of Fossils

One activity that Mavi and I did during our fossil study was to examine the different types of method of preservation of organisms.  We discovered that there are actually 5 major types of fossils and I’m sharing how Mavi worked on them.

Investigating the Past Life with Safari Toob Fossils

We love our Safari Toob!  I think every ‘Mom’schooler should have at least a set or two of these toobs.  They are fabulous learning materials and my kids love them!

Anyway, Mavi is officially joining Vito’s weekly themed activities as he’s almost done with school. He misses “Mom” school and urged me to let him join with the activities.  So while Vito is all about play and learn, I’m giving Mavi some serious investigative work like research, more readings, and selective hands-on activities.

Inspiring Kids To Do Research

As you all know, we’re having Dinosaur-themed activities this week. This curriculum is basically for Vito but most of the time, Mavi wants to take part in it as well, especially when the topic is interesting to him.  And since Mavi loves dinosaurs, I gave him some tasks last Monday (holiday in Ireland).

Letter D: Dinosaur Unit Activities and {Learn & Play Link Up}

The boys are crazy about dinosaurs so this is what we had last week for our letter D sound of the week. I think this is the very first animal Vito recognized because he’s been seeing these dinosaur figures since he was born.

I made use of all Mavi’s dino toys and used it for Vito’s unit. The activities here are so simple and easy to prepare especially if you have dinosaur figures already.

Cleaning dinosaur toy.  This was the first activity I could ever think of. Knowing the boys like to play with water, surely they will like this. And they did!  They washed and brushed their dinosaurs together outside. Vito mostly played with the water but Mavi was seriously doing the work.  So even if Vito didn’t get to really “brush” the dinosaurs, it was a perfect way to expose him to such kind of activity.


Playdough Dino Prints.  I wanted Vito to improve his “pressing” skills so I got out our playdough so we can make impressions.
As you can see, he doesn’t really press the dinos in the dough.  He would just place them on it.  At times he would push them into the playdough using his pointer fingers, not much of the entire hand yet.

Letter D.  We started sounding the letter D around the house as we talked about dinosaurs. Aside from my foam letters, which I posted on the wall for Vito to see everyday, I also made him put dots on a letter D.   He had fun sticking the dots on the letter.  Vito is using more of his left hand these days. Hmmm… I think I might have a leftie!
               
Now Vito realized he can stick the dots to his face as well. And he had fun doing it!


Matching Dinosaurs.  Vito can identify objects now, so I was wondering if he can match objects as well. This activity is more of a presentation rather than Vito matching the dinosaurs.  I placed one piece of the dinosaur in the palette tray and the other on the basket.  Then I take one dinosaur from the basket and say “let’s look for a match”.  So basically, the child will learn objects that match. 


Dino Prints using Paints.  Another activity that I have to take picture before we do the actual thing.  As much as possible I try to involve paints in our unit activities to introduce Vito to arts.  This dino prints was not really appreciated by Vito. He couldn’t make a print out of a dinosaur yet, do he was quite frustrated, so he resorted to hand painting instead.

Discovering Dinosaurs in Ice. This was a total hit! I made these ahead of time and once they were ready both boys were so excited to touch and taste the ice!   
Integrating learning with sensory activities is so much fun!


Dinosaur Free Play. And of course, how can we not have a free play.  I let Vito play with the dinosaurs most of the time.   Vito and Mavi played the dino figures indoors (Mavi making stories)….. 
… and they also played with it outdoors!


More dinosaur activities!!
Over the years, we’ve done a number of wonderful dinosaur activities.  Click on the links below for more ideas!

Dinosaur and the land before time
Dinosaur activities
Digging Dinosaurs
Dinosaur and Worksheets
Preschool Dinosaur Activities
Homemade Dinosaur Fossils

Welcome to the Learn & Play Link Party!

For this week, I’d like to feature simple and easy to prepare activities. These would be best for busy moms like me!

FREE Yoga Poses Nomenclature Cards by Eager Ed
Spell Your Name Busy Bag by Spark and Pook
Beach Crafts for Kids to Make Dinnerware by Hands On As We Grow
A Week in the Life of Unschoolers by Nourishing My Scholar

Now it’s time for this week’s link party! This is a BRAND new link up for all blog posts that include learn and play activities and hands-on education for kids. We are excited to read your blog posts and to see what you have to share! Please link up below and grab our button to display on your blog.

If you are a blogger, share your family friendly posts here. We are looking for things which include:

• Montessori Education
• Homeschool
• Sensory Play
• Tot and Preschool Trays
• Fine and Gross Motor Activities
• Kids in the Kitchen
• Healthy Recipes for Kids
• Arts and Crafts
• Natural Living
• Free Educational Printables
• Family-Oriented Activities
• Healthy Living

Your post will be featured on each of our blogs where we will pick our favourite posts every other week. That means there is more of a chance that you will be featured!

Everyone, please meet our link party hosts:

Christian Montessori Blog ~ Please visit our CMN FB group ~ Pinterest

Vanessa from Mama’s Happy Hive~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Jennifer from Study at Home Mama~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Marie from Child Led Life~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Jae from Pinay Homeschooler~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Heather from Golden Reflections Blog~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Renae from Every Star is Different~FB~Pinterest

GUIDELINES FOR LINKING

• Please link up 1-3 posts
• Follow each of the hosts on social media
• When you link up, please add our button and place it at the bottom of your shared posts or link back with text link.
• By entering a link, you’re giving us permission to feature an image on our blogs. Proper credit & links will ALWAYS be given.
• Please visit a couple of shared posts and leave a comment for them
• Remember that you must link back in order to be featured

Grab This Button:

<div align="center"><a href="http://christianmontessorinetwork.com/category/learn-and-play" title="Christian Montessori Network"><img src="http://www.christianmontessorinetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/learn-and-play-link-up-150-150.png" alt="Christian Montessori Network" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Please Follow
Follow Pinay Homeschooler's board Pinay Homeschooler on Pinterest.

An InLinkz Link-up

Fossils for Kids

Because Mavi is fascinated with dinosaurs and fossils, I always make it a habit to include it yearly in our homeschool activities.  If you are interested learning about our previous dinosaurs and fossils lessons here are the following links:

• Dinosaur and the Land Before Time
• Dinosaur Activity Sheets
• Dinosaur Math Activity
• Dinosaur Books
• Free Feathered Dinosaur Cards
• More Dinosaur Activities
• Dinosaur Cards and Worksheets
• Homemade Dinosaur Fossils
• Digging Up Dinosaurs

For this year, I focused on fossils alone as I wanted Mavi to understand how they became so relevant in defining history.

Fossils by definition are organisms or objects that indicates former presence of an organism which has been preserved in any natural deposit in or on the earth’s crust.  We examined the fossils we have on hand:  Safari Toob Fossil replicas, coral fossils and the animal impressions that we made.

There are different types of fossils.  One famous type of fossil is the preservation of insects found in resins, now known as amber.   Another are moulds of animals or plants; trails or tracks of animals and dinosaurs from thousands of years ago.

With this we made our own animal impressions using Safari Toob animal figures.  They all end up so pretty!   Making animal impressions in a clay is one of the easiest way to recreate a fossil.  Another is embedding an animal or object in an ice or clay similar to an amber.

These are coral fossils which we got from our latest trip to the Philippines.   Mavi described the difference between moulds and cast fossils like those of coral cavities that were filled with mineral substance. Then we examined each of our Safari Toob Ancient Fossils and identify them.  (Source: Safari Toob Fossils)

1. Eurypterid.  A sea scorpion called Mixopterus was discovered in Norway.  They ranged from 5 inches to over 7 feet long.
2. Fossilized Fish.  This is a Diplomystus specimen, typical of a surface feeding fish.  The Green River limestone deposits in Wyoming, USA have beautifully preserved all the fine details of these fossils.
3. Dinosaur Skin.  This is a famous fossil “mummies” of a duck-billed Hadrosaur which became entombed in a sandstone after its death.  The real one can be found in North Dakota, USA.
4. Tyrannosaurus Rex Tooth.  This tooth was found in Montana, USA. The T-Rex, one of the greatest predator possess the largest single teeth of any dinosaur.  They used these double edge, serrated blades to slice off huge pieces of flesh.
5. Dinosaur Foot.  The discoveries of dinosaur tracks and footprints are grouped into similar types and they are given generic names.  Anchisauripus prints were from a small plant-eater found in the state of Connecticut, USA.
6. Velociraptor Claw.  Velociraptor are very efficient hunter because of these large sickle-shaped claws that grow on each hind foot.  This claw was found in Mongolia in Central Asia.
7. Ammonite.  This is an ancient mollusc with a spiral shell.  These marine animals existed for more than 135 million years.  This species is known as Peltoceratoides  and was discovered in Russia.
8. Giant Crabs. Did you know that crabs evolved from lobsters during the Jurassic Period? This original specimens from Washington state, USA are among the finest preserved crab fossils having been buried in sand, soon after their deaths.
9. Trilobite.  They are one of the most important groups of early animals and their unusual appearance and age, make them appealing to fossil collectors worldwide.  They first appeared in the early Cambrian period and become extinct in the Permian, 320 million years ago.
10. Fossilized Frog.  This fossilized species of frog is fully articulated and possibly the ancestor of the modern spade foot toad.  This was collected in Wyoming, USA.

And the best part of a studying fossil is experiencing how these Palaeontologist dig and discover fossils!  Materials used in the tub:

• Learning Resources Fine Motor Tool Set
• Oatmeal
• Random magnifier glass
• Paint brush
• Safari Toob Ancient Fossils

Be sure to pin this post for future reference!

Dinosaur and the Land Before Time

My son is obsessed with dinosaurs. Majority of the books he borrowed from the library is about dinosaurs.  His birthday cake was decorated with dinosaurs. So when he begged that we’ll play with dinosaurs, I couldn’t resist.  He reads his dinosaur books every night and is eager to learn all about the beginning of times.  So considering all these factors, I put up an afterschool learning activity about the geological times and the era of dinosaurs.

Here are the activities we worked on this unit study.

Study of Rocks for Kids

Mavi has always been fascinated with rocks.  He's been obsessed with rocks and dinosaurs since he discovered Dinosaur Train.  We have piles of rocks in our backyard that he had collected for some time now and he considered them his precious collection.  We've already had our experiment on Rock Cycle and it was a hit.

Thus, I had an idea to do this activity to feed his interest.  I purchased a set of Igneous Rocks and Metamorphic Rocks (I did not get the Sedimentary Rocks but here's the link for your reference), collected more rocks from the seaside and borrowed books from the library to complete our rock study.

Review: GeoSafari Igneous and Metamorphic Rock Collection

Hello everyone! This review is NOT PAID and we did not receive this learning materials for free.  I bought these materials for our Rocks and Minerals Study Unit.  I just wanted to give a review of these materials  for documentary purposes and this is for those who are wishing to get this will have a better idea of how they look like.

I bought the Learning Resources Geosafari Igneous Rock Collection and Learning Resources Geosafari Metamorphic Rock Collection  so that Mavi can have a real feel of what these rocks look like in real life (not just in books!).  And I am so happy that I got these. How I wish that the entire collection is on sale so I could have purchased the Learning Resources Geosafari Mineral Collection and Learning Resources Geosafari Fossils Collection.

Anyway, these materials arrived on time.  The package comes in a sturdy sealed box with a picture of how the content looks like.  The box itself is medium sized.  Not too small or big for me. Just the right one wherein you can store them easily in a cabinet. 

Once opened, this is what you will find on the back of the box's lid.  Pictures of the rocks and their names.  They are numbered according to how they are positioned in the tray.  The pictures DO NOT LOOK EXACTLY the same as the rocks inside the tray. This is fine with me but other reviewers in Amazon find this disappointing.

The box has a foam cover, just enough to cover the rocks.  There's also a leaflet that gives out some instructions on how to use the materials, how to label and protect them.  As you can see, there's a number stickers that comes with the box.  The purpose of this number stickers is for tagging the rocks.  Using the information on the lid, use these stickers to tag each rock so you won't mix and confuse them with the others.  Now this is quite tricky as stickers can be removed. So there's an alternative tagging solution written in that leaflet. 

This is how the rocks in the tray looks like. 

Some Amazon reviewers claim that the plastic tray is flimsy.  Yes it is but not that much. It can still hold all the rocks inside it.

 

Now, for the rock sizes. I have no complains.  They're exactly how I want them to be. Not too small, not too big. Just the right size for my little ones to hold and observe.  I honestly don't want to keep huge rocks in the house as it will occupy space.  So these pebble-like sizes are fine. 

          

And here's the Learning Resources Geosafari Metamorphic Rock Collection      . 

 

I am so happy with my purchase and so is my son.  He loves to touch them and read out their names! I love their sizes as I can easily store them in a cupboard or in a cabinet.  My husband thinks that they're quite pricey for a bunch of rocks.  Well he is right.  But you see, I got them on sale so I'm quite contented with the purchase. And that's the reason why I didn't get the Learning Resources Geosafari Sedimentary Rock Collection as they're on their original price.  Besides, sedimentary rocks are almost everywhere! We've collected a few from the beach and will look for more of it here in the park (in the creek). 

I cannot really say that I HIGHLY recommend them or say they're SO GREAT to have.  It all depends on your taste. If you're happy with these sizes and can see that it's going to be useful, then get one. But if you find them pricey (not on sale) and if you have an alternative means of collecting these rocks... then don't go for it.

And that's about it.  I hope you are happy and satisfied with my review.  If you have questions that I didn't get to answer in the review please don't hesitate to leave me a comment or send me a message in Facebook.

Till my next product review!