The Dinosaur World

07/07/2008 (Monday)

a) New toys!
We had new dinosaur toys. I brought 2 baskets. We calculated the amout of toys in each basket and labelled. Then they started playing with friends. They arranged the dinosaurs in a row; figuring which are meat eaters or plant eaters. They had a race competition. They were saying their names but in Chinese. I hope in days to come, they could recognise their English names….which are longer.

b) Story: Dinosaurs Roar
We gathered to read a book on “Dinosaurs Roar” by Scholastic. The pictures were big and colourful. Generally, it is a book of “comparisons”. Among some lines were:
· Dinosaurs roar, dinosaurs squeak.
· Dinoasaurs tall, dinosaurs short.
· Dinosaurs big, dinosaurs tiny.
· Dinoasurs fast, dinosaurs slow.
YP pointed to me guessing the bigger dinosaurs that eat the smaller ones. ZY disagreed. I asked their opinions. I hinted them. “Look at the sharp teeth and claws. These are the meat-eaters. But how then do the plant-eaters protect themselves from them?”
Zyg said, “Look at their body.”
Teacher continued, “Yes, some dinosaurs had sharp plates behind their back. Some had spikes on their legs. Some had strong tails to protect themselves.”

c) Whereabouts of Dinosaurs
After tea break, we formed a circle time.
Teacher : “Has anyone ever seen a dinosaur before?”
Children : “No!”
Teacher : “How then did they know about the existence?”
YP : “They imagined.”
JS : “They read from books.”
Teacher : “But who drew on the books?”
I introduced geologist whose work is to search for fossils. The fossils gave them ideas of the dinosaurs’ skeletons and their characteristics.
EG, YZ : Dinosaurs were borned many million years ago.
I wrote a figure with many zeros. “Wow!” they said. So long ago before people were born. Dinosaurs came in 3 Ages. i) Triassic Period (245 to 208 million years ago), ii) Jurassic Period (208 to 145 million years ago), iii) Cretaceous Period (145 million to 65 million years ago).
We looked at the Earth’s surface during these 3 periods. During Triassic Period, there was only a huge land with dinosaurs everywhere. Example: there was Plateosaurus. Its mouth hinted the kids that it ate plants.
During Jurassic Period, the climate had caused the land to break into 2 smaller pieces. There were more dinosaurs and they were fiercer! Examples: Stegosaurus with plates to protect itself from meat-eaters. Camarasaurus….and NOT Camerasaurus! The kids laughed! The kids were amazed that it weighed up to 28,000 kg!
During Cretaceous Period, the climate caued the land to break up to even smaller pieces. The Earth looked similar to what we have in the map today! Example: T-Rex. Some kids already knew their names such as J! It was “The King of Dinosaurs”! It was a great meat-eater.

d) The “Dinosaur” movie.
We gathered to march downstairs. We were going to watch the DVD on “Dinosaur”…a really informative cartoon movie. JN brought and shared with us. The computer was rather slow. While waiting, the kids recited the poem on “Fruit Salad”. We even had some questions on what they had learnt earlier. Unfortunately, we couldn’t watch the movie. I promised them tomorrow as I would check the computer and DVD. As they marched up the stairs, some had already imitated walking like dinosaurs……haaaaa!