Friday, September 10, 2010

Beware of Dinos...(and Mrs. Cooley Finds her Inner Mrs. Frizzle)


I want to be Mrs. Frizzle. (If you have no idea who I'm talking about, grab some Magic School Bus books--they're the best!) When I say I want to be Mrs. Frizzle, I'm talking about wanting to create an environment in which learning is visible everywhere, and the theme is integrated into all aspects of the curriculum! In Mrs. Frizzle's room, her class is magically taken on learning adventures in the Magic School Bus. Although I don't have a magic bus, I want the learning that is taking place to be so much fun that it feels as if a Magic School Bus has whizzed into the room and transported everyone into another time and place!!! {I also want Mrs. Frizzle's themed outfits and earrings.} Anyway, this week, I have channeled my inner Mrs. Frizzle, and have tried to make the classroom into a room that revolves all around dinosaurs! The picture above, and the one below, are two of our classroom dinosaurs! It's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but the dinosaurs are pretty big--the T-Rex almost touches the ceiling, and the Brontosaurus is about as tall as the white board! I used the two dinos in my lesson about carnivores and herbivores, and I had the kids draw and label food items for each of the dinosaurs. My personal favorites were the "grassy poptart" made especially for our herbivore dino, and the meatball made for our carnivore dino!


We made fossils using play-doh and shells! This is the fossil display station.

This is Pete the Paleontologist. When I introduced Pete to the class, he didn't have any tools at all. We studied pictures of Paleontologists, looked at real photos and slides from the Sue T-Rex Exhibit in Chicago, and then created tools for Pete. We labeled them together on the poster!

11 comments:

Sarah said...

It definitely feels like Mrs. Frizzle to me! I love your interactive wall displays!!

Anonymous said...

We enjoyed looking at this and Ryan and Hunter pointed out what they drew

Unknown said...

Hi Sarah,

I just wanted to let you know that I gave you "The Versatile Blogger Award" today. I really enjoy reading your blog.

You can find out more about the award here: http://twrctank.com/2010/09/11/versatile-blogger-award/

Best,

Julie

Kathleen said...

I love your little drawings! So cute!!! thanks for sharing so many great ideas! I always look forward to new pasts from you!

Sarah Cooley said...

Julie--Thank you very very much! I'm excited! I promise I will post it when I get the chance!

Sarah and Mrs. P--thank you so much for the compliments! I'm so glad you like my ideas! :)

Sam Rangel said...

Great way to teach about dinosaurs while decorating your classroom at the same time. Classroom decoration is something that some of us guys have a tough time with. : )

Thanks,
Sam
SuccessInTheClassroom.com

Mrs. Hunt said...

I LOVE YOUR BLOG!!!

I love your super cute dinos. A fun thing I did with my kids one year- I made dino heads from poster board, one triceratops, one t-rex, and cut out mouth holes. I then put together a "picnic basket" of different plastic foods. The kids had to take turns "feeding" the dinos the correct type of food (t-rex got chicken, triceratops got tomatoes...) The kids LOVED it and it really helped the concept of herbivore/carnivore stick.
Lauren :)

Cheryl said...

Sarah,

Pete is soooo cute. I love your students' pictures of the tools. One of the concepts we have to teach is Science tools. I couldn't come up with a "1st Gradish" idea for this lesson but after seeing Pete, we will have a Sarah the Scientist poster. Thanks for the idea!!

Cheryl

Kara said...

I stopped by because I noticed my blog was getting a lot of traffic from yours and I LOVE it! You make me miss teaching- your ideas are so fun and your classroom is adorable! Thanks for visiting at little learners lounge- it means so much that you have me listed an inspiration.

-Kara
http://littlelearnerslounge.blogspot.com/

Suzan said...

I want to find a way to include Dinosaurs into my themes after seeing this! My k's would love it. :-)

Unknown said...

I love your dinosaur egg puzzles! Thanks for sharing so many neat ideas!

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