Friday's Art Smarts: Appearing Dinosaurs (and a little something extra)

Today's project had a lot of potential. A LOT. When I saw the tutorial over at this website a couple weeks ago, I was like, "Yes! This is so, so cool. Done." And it is. But I think there are a few tips which we did not follow, but from which you can certainly benefit. And if you listen to this advice, I really do think this project is way cool. 

Okay,

Materials:

blank, white paper (we used computer paper)

print outs of dinosaur skeletons

white crayons or oil pastels

watercolor paints and paint brushes

Process:

This is a crayon resist project. You may have done this before with your kids. It's a pretty neat technique; basically, you let the kids draw a picture with crayons and then they paint over their picture with paints. We used watercolors today. Since the crayons are waxy, they resist the paint (giving the technique its name), and the drawings will come through. 

So, step one (I completed this step for my kids since they're so young. Older children, maybe age 7 and up, could complete this step on their own): trace a dinosaur skeleton onto your white paper using the print outs as a guide. 

I used a white crayon for this step, and while it worked, I would suggest going for a white oil pastel instead. My crayon did resist the paint some, but in the end, it was a little difficult to see the skeletons. I wasn't sure if it was because of the crayon or the amount of water Daniel used, but just to be on the safe side, we'll be using pastels for projects like this in the future. 

I completed this step at 10:00 last night after a very long day and I was tired. So, sadly, I didn't get any pictures for you. Bad blogger. 

Step two: give the "blank" pieces of paper to the kids along with the paints and let them loose! It was so much fun to hear the excitement in their voice when the surprise began to show up :)

At first I was really happy with how well they were turning out.

Then, things went south. I'm wondering if a lot of it had to do with how much water the kids used? Daniel definitely went back to the water over and over again (more than he needed to), and sometimes skipped the paint entirely and just brushed water onto his paper. We're working on that. But the end result was a massive puddle with a little washed out paint right in the middle of his picture. And while it dried in relatively little time, it also seemed to make the skeleton a lot less vivid.

Daniel, age 3

See what I mean? You can kind of see it, but not well. 

I'd love to try this project again with oil pastels and with a little more adult supervision. If I do, I'll post an update.

The good news, though, is that the kids had fun. It didn't matter to them that the dinosaur skeletons were a little washed out. Kids love putting paint on paper, and they're not very picky about the little things ;)

Update! I let Natalie try this project after she came home from school and cautioned her against using too much water. I told her to get her brush wet, but only just, and to really load it up with color (most of the colors were still wet from this morning). The result? MUCH better!

Natalie, age 4

So, I guess white crayon actually does work pretty well. The trick is to not transfer too much water to your paper...and to take the art away from the child before it becomes a wet puddle!

Okay. Since our project this week was pretty basic, and since I have another cool activity that I wanted to post, I'm combining them. Two birds with one stone, man. I'm all about some efficiency. 

Thursday's Dino Dig

One of the things I had planned for this week (the one thing I knew I wanted us to do when I planned this week back in mid-August), was a Dino Dig. When I happened to mention it to Daniel, he loved the idea and has been asking me about it ever since. So he was excited when I told him that the day had finally come.

All week, we've been reading dinosaur books, and one that I mentioned a couple days ago, "Digging Up Dinosaurs", by Aliki, has been particularly helpful. We brought that book as well as another non-fiction book with us to the park to use as a reference guide during the dig.

Materials:

Non-fiction dinosaur books

Dino Dig journal page (found at Adventures in Mommydom) and clipboard

dry pasta

digging tools (we used a small paint brush, a bottle brush, and a cheese spreader)

crayons

toy dinosaurs for small world play afterwards

Process:

When we got to the playground, I sent Daniel off to play while I set up the dig. He did come back after a few minutes. I kept encouraging him to go play some more because I didn't want him to watch me set it up - I was afraid he'd be less excited to dig up the dinosaur bones if he watched me put them in the ground. Turns out, that didn't matter at all. Phew!

I used one of the books to help me recreate the dinosaur skeletons using bits of pasta.

I had a lot of fun with this part!

I did forget to give poor T-Rex a tail. Oh well. Maybe, I thought later, he lost it in a fight. And that's how he died.

After I recreated the skeletons, I covered them up with a bit of sand and pine needles. Then I sat down with Daniel and we reviewed a few things. We looked at pictures of the tools that are used to excavate the fossils and I showed Daniel his tools. We looked at pictures of workers brushing the sand away and I reminded him that he would need to be very gentle. And we practiced brushing the sand away from a buried stick. After that, I led him over to the dig site.

As soon as he saw the first "bone," he got really excited. And right to work.

He brushed and dug. I encouraged him to used his hands, too, but he preferred that paint brush.

We kept a book open in front of him so that he could identify the skeletons. Amazingly, he chose the right one. It really was amazing. First of all, they were made out of pasta. And secondly, as soon as he started digging, the bones went everywhere. I think it was more of a lucky guess than a scientific identification.

After the dig, I gave him his journal page to complete. I read each section to him and he drew the pictures:

And then it was time to play!

But really, it was all play. At dinner last night, he declared that his favorite part of the day was doing his school stuff. You know that made me happy :)

When the kids are a little older, we'll revisit dinosaurs and if we do another dig, I'll probably invest in some small, model dinosaur skeletons. Another mom was telling me about a company that makes them. But for our purposes here, the dry pasta was perfect. I'm not sure that it was any less real for him, and we weren't worried about identifying bones or anything that specific. 

All in all, total success! Yes! I love it when that happens!

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Our Homeschool Morning: Dinosaurs, Bones, and Cicadas

Well, we've kicked off another homeschool preschool year and so far, it's been a lot of fun. Daniel is super enthusiastic about the Dino Dig (tomorrow) and he's been loving the books we checked out from the library.

As I've mentioned, I've only planned one or two activities a day, leaving most of the morning wide open for free play, indoors and out. I am learning that if we're outside, Daniel needs some guidance so that he doesn't end up wandering around the yard moaning about how bored he is. I'm also learning that a change of scenery works wonders; sometimes we spend the mornings in the backyard and sometimes the front yard. On top of that, it's hot here in Florida. Really hot. So it helps to throw in some water play to cool everyone off. 

In this post, I'm actually going over a few of the activities from the last two mornings.

Books we're reading and loving:

"Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs - Missing Treasure", by Giles Andreae

This is a great storybook. It's definitely fiction, and it's just for fun. Daniel loves dinosaurs and he loves pirates. This book very effectively combines both of his loves. Oh, and the name Gurgleguts may or may not be a part of the story and Daniel may or may not have laughed hysterically when I read it to him. 

"Digging Up Dinosaurs", by Aliki

I loved this book! What a great nonfiction book for young children. It explains how dinosaur fossils get from the ground to the museum in an entertaining and age-appropriate way. I did end up rewording some of the information so that Daniel could understand better, but this book held his attention to the very end. That's saying a lot.  

"Ten Terrible Dinosaurs", by Paul Strickland

Another fiction story, with a focus on counting (backwards). Over the years, I've had and/or read books with this plot line to preschoolers and it's always a hit. With simple rhymes and large, bold print numbers, this book is great for practicing number recognition and counting. 

Plaster Casts of our Footprints:

After reading one of our nonfiction books about dinosaur fossils, we noted that sometimes paleontologists don't find the bones at all - sometimes all they find is a footprint. I decided that it would be fun to help the kids make a "fossil" of their own footprints using Plaster of Paris. We bought a box of Plaster of Paris at Michaels Craft Store for $4.50 (we had a 50% off coupon). 

Step one: fill a box with dirt from your yard. Alternatively, (and this would probably work better) you could use sand.

Water it down a little. You want the dirt to be hard enough to hold a foot print.

Have your child step into the box to make a footprint. You might have to help push down their toes to get a good print, and after they took their foot out I dug down around the print a little to make it deeper.

Mix up your Plaster of Paris. Basically, it's equal parts powder and water. We used a plastic cup and spoon and the kids helped with stirring. Then carefully pour a little plaster into the prints. Our directions told us to pour halfway and then tap the box to release air bubbles. We dd that, but it didn't seem to work...so I just poked my finger in there to get the air bubbles out. Then we filled each print the rest of the way. 

Wait half an hour or so and then carefully flip the footprint casts out of the box. We set ours on a piece of parchment paper.

I gave each of the kids an old toothbrush and instructed them to brush the dirt away, just like a paleontologist would brush the dirt off of a fossil. They got right to work.

It was very difficult to get all the dirt off, so the next day I took them out to the water hose and sprayed them with water. This is how they look now:

Pretty cool, huh? Not sure what we'll do with them, yet. Maybe stick them in the school room and admire them for a bit. Oh, and you'll notice that Natalie's footprint cast is broken in half. She did that yesterday by setting it down on the porch a little too hard. Lesson learned: these are fragile, especially before they've cured all the way. I'll glue this one up so that it's in one piece again, but we were a little sad that it broke. 

Examining a Wildebeest Bone:

Several years ago, my husband did some mission work in Africa, and on one of his trips he and his team went on a safari. He came across this bone on the ground and the tour guide believed it to have come from a wildebeest.

It's been living in a bowl on his dresser ever since. And since we're talking about fossils this week, I thought it would be the perfect thing for Daniel to examine. 

I brought it out and he was immediately captivated. I let him look at it for a couple minutes, and then I asked him to describe it. Turns out 3 year olds need very clear direction. Asking open ended questions like, "What do you notice about this bone?" gives you answers like, "I think it came from a dinosaur." So, I quickly switched to questions like, "What color is it?" "Is it heavy or light?" "Is it smooth or rough?" and, "Do you notice that hole on the end?" With more direct questions, Daniel was able to focus his observations to things he could see, rather than jumping to conclusions. 

I made a little book with two pieces of computer paper folded in half:

Inside were pages where Daniel could write down his observations (he dictated them to me and I wrote them down):

And draw pictures of the bone:

Incidentally, he did end up coming to the conclusion that this was, in fact, a dinosaur bone, and nothing would convince him otherwise. I also learned this morning that Daniel actually believes that the animatronic dinosaurs we saw at this zoo this year are real. As in really alive. That kind of blew me away. I had not thought to make it clear to the kids that they were pretend. I just assumed that they knew that. Whoops.

Outside Play:

Finding a Cicada Skin:

Daniel found this little beauty this morning on the playset. I've been seeing cicadas around here a lot lately and today we were lucky enough to find the skin from one who had just molted. 

He practiced his balancing act:

And dissected one of the dead flowers from our elephant ears:

This was a lot of fun for him, but it's important to note that...

When you're dealing with nature sometimes things go a little south.

Daniel got into the slimy stuff inside the flower bud and then rubbed his eyes. Not good. We immediately cleaned his eyes and washed his hands. After he calmed down we talked about how it's important to keep his hands away from his face if there's anything on them. And I also thought to myself it might be wise to invest in some safety gear. Gloves, for example.

All in all, a lot of fun! I can't wait to take Daniel and Silas to the playground tomorrow for our Dino Dig. He's been asking about it for two weeks, so I'm excited to actually set it up for him :)

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For a list of all the parties that I link up with each week, please visit my Linking Up page!