Dinosaurs - A Family STEAM & Stories event

This program was intended to introduce STEAM concepts through stories and exploration activity stations to families with children ages 3-8 years old.    

Intro song #1:  Hello Friends (sign language action song for the words hello, friends, science, fun, and time)

Hello friends,
Hello friends,
Hello friends,
It's time to say hello.

Hello science,
Hello science,
Hello science,
It's time to have some fun.   

 

Demonstration and Storytime:

·       Show pictures of dinosaurs and try to name them. 

·       Show the word cards for dinosaur, fossil, and extinct.  Talk about what these words mean. 

·       Show my plant fossils that I brought from home.  Talk about how my family dug these up during a vacation in Republic, Washington. 

Intro song #2: If You Are Ready for Stories... (my adaptation of a Rob Reid storytime rhyme)

If you are ready for stories...
...Count to three.
...Stretch your wings.
...Touch your toes.
...Touch your nose.
...Bark like a dog.
...Snore like a log.
...Sit like a kid at storytime.

Read: Dinosaurumpus! by Tony Mitton, illustrated by Guy Parker-Rees

Optional books:
Deinonychus Goes Hunting by Marie Bollman and Elizabeth Gilbert Bedia
Here We Go Digging for Dinosaur Bones by Susan Lendroth, illustrated by Bob Kolar

·       Talk about how large a dinosaur footprint would be.

·       Show the life-size tyrannosaurus rex footprint I made on butcher paper.  Talk about measuring how many children would fit inside the footprint (nontraditional measurement).  Urge the children to stand inside the footprint and count how many children fit inside. 

·       Instruct children on how to use the stations. 

Stations: 

 

Station #1- Dinosaur feet craft

The children cut out and decorate dinosaur feet to wear. 

 

Station #2 – Clay fossil prints

Children take a small clump of air dry clay and then press it flat.  Next, they make fossil-like imprints in the clay with the provided materials (such as shells, pinecones, toy dinosaurs, sticks, plastic toy plants, etc.). 

 

Station #3 – Dinosaur classification

The children look at dinosaur toy figures.  They place the dinosaurs on the classification papers that best match each dinosaur (carnivore, herbivore, four legs, two legs, lives in the ocean, etc.) 

 

Station #4 – Dinosaur games

Encourage the children to play with dinosaur domino and memory card sets.