At the beginning of the week some children asked if there were more dinosaurs to play with in nursery. There was – a whole box! This has led to lots of focussed play and learning around dinosaurs this week which we would love to share with you.
The box of dinosaurs stimulated a lot of learning through play.
There were many different types of dinosaurs in the box. We knew names for some of these, such as Ampelosaurus, Diploducus, Tyranosaurus, Stegosaurus, Velociraptor, Triceratops… so many different kinds of dinosaur and so many big words to get our tongues around!
Henry, Max, Micah, Lewis, Freddie and Emmie compared some features of the dinosaurs in the box. Having time to discuss our ideas is important for developing our talking and listening skills and helps us to learn new words. Noticing similarities and differences in the dinosaurs helps develop our numeracy skills too as we talk about and compare different sizes, shapes and features.
Emmie said “the tallest een could eat leaves aff the trees becis his neck wis lang.”
Henry thought the strong dinosaurs “broke the wall doon. They hitted into dem.”
They discussed the Stegosaurus spikes. Max said “they wir for poking” and Freddie agreed, “yeah for spiking things.”
We discussed what we already know about dinosaurs. It turns out that we know a lot! Miss Sandison recorded our knowledge into the floorbook so that we can come back to our ideas and explore them deeper.
Having time to play with the dinosaurs together was great for developing our imaginations, our vocabulary and our sharing skills. Bobby and Ross built “dinosaur world” where different sized dinosaurs could hide and move through different block areas.
Ertie and Elsie created a cage where the dangerous dinosaurs got trapped. Sorting and categorising is an important numeracy skill. Ertie explained that “the Stegosaurus is protecting the cage wi his armour and spikes.”
Ross and James made a long “dinosaur path” which led dinosaurs into different “worlds”. When asked how many stones they had needed for the path they estimated “about 100 becis it is a really really lang path.”
Some children joined group times where we could learn more about dinosaurs. We used “Topmarks Dinosaur Discovery” to find out some interesting facts. Group times also helps us to develop our turn taking, waiting, listening, talking and questioning skills.
Maggie wanted to learn more about T-Rex. We discovered that T-Rex had sharp teeth and liked eating meat. Lewis pointed out that “T-Rex ate idder dinosaurs sometimes.”
Sophia chose a tiny dinosaur to learn about. It was called a Yi and it ate insects and plants, she thought it was “very cute.”
James chose to learn about the Stegosaurus tail. We found out that it was very big and very strong. Joanna commented “it could smash through everything, even big bones.”
Having time and space to play alone is important too as it gives us time to explore our ideas, use our imaginations and develop independence. Ali spent some time this week creating volcanoes which dinosaurs had to run away from. Not every dinosaur escaped.
William chose to spend time looking through dinosaur books and stories. He used the pictures to learn more about dinosaurs and asked adults to help him read some pages of the books. Being able to tell the difference between pictures and words is an important literacy skill.
Jackson used his mark making skills and fine motor control to draw around some dinosaurs. He then looked at the skin of the dinosaurs and spent time drawing the patterns into his picture.
Micah and Max moved their dinosaur play outdoors where they could dig different depths of holes to bury different sized dinosaurs. They discussed which dinosaurs were to be buried and how deep to dig each hole. They problem solved together and worked in partnership as Max measured the dinosaurs with his hand and Micah dug the holes to size.
James and Freya also took the dinosaur interest outdoors. They both walked on bucket stilts to be big dinosaurs walking through the swamp. Freya commented that “it is hard to balance when you ir a big dinosaur, I tink it’s better having short legs so that you can run fast.” Using imaginative play in this way helps us to develop concentration and perseverance as well as balance and core strength.
Joanna and Thea were very perceptive and noticed a “peerie dinosaur footprint”. They measured it against their own feet and realised it was about the same size. “Maybe it wis a peerie dinosaur” said Joanna, “maybe it was a baby een” thought Thea. Wondering, asking questions and sharing our thoughts with each other is an important literacy skill.
In another section of the outdoor space there was a big footprint. “It’s a diploducus becis he has a big footprint.” said Joanna. It could fit at least three children inside it! Comparing and talking about sizes, measure and shape through play and in natural contexts is very important for developing numeracy skills. Thea realised that the dinosaur had stood inside a circle, Joanna noticed it had left spikey bits from the bottom of it’s feet while Alfie listened and wondered what kind of dinosaur it could have been.
In the sand pit there was also evidence of dinosaurs. Long and short scrapes, vertical and horizontal scrapes. “His scratches ir right lang becis he is so big.” thought Freya, “he had really sharp claws. ” added Ertie. Noting, commenting on and noticing, things in our environment is hugely important for us as it develops our sense of wonder, helps us develop questioning skills and makes us aware of the world around us. All important aspects of becoming successful learners.
On Thursday we even played dinosaur games in the play park. Lewis was a very fast and very hungry dinosaur who wanted to eat the other dinosaurs! Everyone had to use their problem solving skills and their muscles to escape!
Freya climbed really high, hoping the dinosaur couldn’t climb…but he could. She then chose the rope ladder to escape “becis dir is holes dat he can fall through!” but the dinosaur held on tight and didn’t fall through the holes.
Jordie and Jackson sneaked away when the dinosaur was distracted and found a hidden safe cave where they could watch out for him. “He canoo get in here, he is too big, so we can bide here and when he is far awa we can go oot” explained Jordie.
At the end of the week many dinosaurs went in the “swamp” where they got their feet sticky and made lots of different marks as they stomped around. Lewis, Micah and Maisie discussed the consistency of the swamp using words such as “gooey, sticky, slimey”. Great adjectives! The dinosaurs got up to a lot of adventures in the swamp, including laying eggs which were counted and compared and getting their heads washed.
Dinosaurs were not the only things to get washed this week. Water play was popular through the week. There was a lot of exploration, discussion and play around funnels and containers with and without holes in them. Alfie, Lucas and Ross explored whether or not it was best to pour into a big or small funnel. They took turns to experiment and took time to listen to each other and take turns.
Jackson and Thea explored how the sponge worked. They let the water soak into it, squeezed the water out through a colander and into a pot to make “soup”. By playing with these different materials we learning about volume, measure and capacity as well as develop turn taking, team work and listening skills.
There was even more water play outdoors which became a science experiment! Ertie, Sophia, Annie and Lottie decided to play in the water from the tap. They figured out that they could stand under it without (mostly) getting wet!! We wondered why this was the case? Ertie said “becis my boots dunoo let the water in and dir under the breeks.” He showed us that he could hold his leg under without it getting wet.
Lottie and Sophia tried another experiment by holding their bodies under the water. They thought the water felt good and sounded loud as it beat gently on their backs. It didn’t matter that the water was cold as we had on our suits and didn’t feel cold!
Once inside it was time to check if our waterproofs had really worked- dry socks, dry legs, dry jumpers, dry sleeves BUT we all had wet hair and wet wooly hats! How could that be? We agreed that maybe we need to do some more science experiments around different materials soon to find out some answers.
