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Monday, April 30, 2012

Expanding reading: Get moving!


Reading can be so much fun!  We've talked about reading many time and the wonderful benefits it has for your children.  Here is a great book that has many interactive activities to help your children learn everyday and develop pre-math skills, a love for reading, matching, and colors identification from an early age.

This book is all about Dinosaurs and their CRAZY movements, so get moving with your children!!!

Here are some fun ideas:
  • Act out the words!
Let your child roar, squeak, act fierce, act meet, walk slow, walk fast, act weak and strong, measure short and long, fat and tiny, demonstrate clean and slimy, act sweet and grumpy, touch spiky and lumpy, and dramatize eating lunch. 

  • Matching Game
Match the dinosaur by color, shape, and name. 
-Green/orange with spikes-Stegosaurus
-Orange/yellow with bony head-parasaurolophus
-Small orange/yellow with long tail- deinonychus
-Green/blue with two sharp front teeth- tyrannosaurus
-Large yellow/orange with spots-brontosaurus
-Large brown spotted- allosaurus
-Flying- rhamphorhynchus
-Small yellow/green with spots- campsognathus

  •   Fossil Craft
Ingredients
Foil pie tins (small and large) or reusable pie plates
Large cupcake tins or other dishes that have flat bottoms and are fairly shallow
At least three small bags of plaster of paris
Measuring cup
Water
A collection of things from nature to “fossilize” (Don’t use things that you want to save. The plaster doesn’t come off easily), and
Paints if you want to decorate them more

Directions
Mix up all of the plaster of paris, using only about 3/4 of the water it calls for. You want it to be thick.  Spread out all of your pans and fill each of them with about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of plaster of paris and let set up for a few minutes until it is a little firm.  Press your “fossils” into the plaster and let them set up for about 5 more minutes.  Carefully peel back the “fossils” to reveal the impression and then let dry for 20-30 minutes. 


  •   Field Trip
To see real bones, take a field trip over to the BYU Museum of Paleontology.  This museum is free to the public and is open from Mondy-Friday, 9am-5pm.

It is located at: BYU Museum of Paleontology
1683 N. Canyon Road
Provo, Utah 84602-3300


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