CRAFTS—CREATING  DINOSAURS’ FROM BOXES AND SCRAPS

Children of all ages are fascinated by dinosaurs. I find it amazing that kindergarteners’ know the names and habits of so many dinosaurs’.  Many of their concepts are from cartoons, movies, and some books. I have found YouTube to be invaluable in presenting what scientists have found out about dinosaurs up to now-I say that because they are always finding new fossils and coming up with new concepts about how they lived and why they died. The YouTube Program I use in my classes the most often is, National Geographic’s “ How Dinosaurs Lived”. It consists of many different videos of dinosaurs roaming the earth, how they are born from eggs, how they fight (the boys love this), where they lived and the theories of how they died, etc. I find the children remember better and are more excited when they see the videos.

After we read, study, watch videos, discuss, and write about dinosaur life we create dinosaurs. This year I saved many sizes of cartons, different shaped boxes, paper, cans and craft scraps. I let the each child pick the carton they want and whatever they thought they needed for the project.

To put the dino together I had masking tape, glue, and hot glue guns.  I had my aid help the children with the glue gun. Young children should not use the glue guns because of the danger of burns.

This was one of the most exciting projects we did. I had some dinosaur books the kids could look at to help with their concepts. They spent the whole day creating and were very disappointed when school ended-they wanted to stay and work on their project

I was very surprised by the reaction of most of the parents. They also got excited about what their child did and couldn’t wait to take them home. Some even took pictures with their phones to show them off. A few parents had them displayed in the family room for the rest of the year.