There are soooooo many great books about dinosaurs that it was really hard to choose just one, and well, we really didn't. We read lots of them! We focused on Skippyjon Jones and the Big Bones because my girls LOVE Skippyjon Jones! (Why else would we have a kitten with the same name?)
If you aren't familiar with Skippyjon Jones, he is a Siamese cat with extremely large ears and an overactive imagination. He disappears into his closet and goes on adventures as a sword fighting chihuahua. They are very clever stories that remind me way too much of my oldest!
Since they do take place in the imagination of a cat, they are not always accurate, but definitely entertaining!
In Skippyjon Jones and the Big Bones, Skippy goes back to the time of dinosaurs. He and his buddies, Los Chimichangos experience a Rumba with the dinosaurs and a volcanic eruption. Then Skippy causes all the dinosaurs to go extinct (and become fossils) with nothing other then his bad breath!
The volcano is one of the girls favorite parts, so I decided we would make our own volcano. I wanted something a little different then the normal baking soda and vinegar reaction, so I actually decided to try making Oobleck with vinegar instead of water. It worked!
So I combined cornstarch and vinegar to make my Erupting Oobleck, and I colored half a reddish color for lava and half a grayish color for the area around the volcano. The lava was put into a bottle that I constructed a volcano around. I was hoping to use play dough, but I didn't have time to make it, so poster board and a plastic drinking cup worked just fine (never mind the blue cup).
Placed our volcano on one end of our bin, with extra oobleck around it, and baking soda on the other end with dinosaurs (similar to the one I saw on 123 Homeschool 4 Me)! The kids added some greenery for fun too!
It doesn't show very well in these pictures, but when dinosaurs were placed in to the oobleck from the baking soda little bubbles formed around their feet like they were sinking.
Then we added baking soda to our volcano. It didn't erupt as easily as it had when I tried it in a cup, less surface area I guess, so I had to mix it a bit to get it going. It did go though!
And the girls had a great time putting the dinosaurs in the bubbling lava!
After burying the small dinosaurs in oobleck for a while they washed them off and moved on to the large dinosaurs. I added more vinegar and cornstarch to mix in the extra baking soda too. The big dinosaurs gave them more of a chance to see the properties of the oobleck coming through. It you pushed them into the oobleck you could feel resistance as you tried to pull them out (the oobleck acts similar to quick sand).
Then they left the dinosaurs behind to just play with the oobleck!
After we cleaned up, and washed the kids and dinosaurs really well we made some fossil cookies. They are actually just peanut butter cookies, but instead of using a fork to squish them we used a dinosaur! Even Eli had to get in on it!
We ended up with lots of tail and footprints, but they had fun making fossils (and eating them)!
Here are all the other great Dinosaur books we read!
Make sure you stop by the other Poppin's Book Nook bloggers and check out their fabulous posts! Then come link up your own Prehistoric Fun!
Next month we are on the move with Travel and Transportation!
Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - Royal Baloo - 3 Dinosaurs - Monsters Ed - Chestnut Grove Academy - Growing in God's Grace - Royal Little Lambs - Life with Moore Babies - Teach Beside Me - The Usual Mayhem - Mum Central - Fantastic Fun and Learning - Kathys Cluttered Mind - Play Create Explore - Toddler Approved - Growing Book by Book - Adventures in Mommydom - B-Inspired Mama - The Fairy and The Frog - Edventures with Kids - Learning & Growing the Piwi way - A Gluten Free Journey - Mom to Crazy Monkeys - No Doubt Learning - Preschool Powol Packets - To The Moon and Back - Our Craft ~N~ Things - Farm Fresh Adventures - Proverbial Homemaker
