D-d- Dinosaur

Some time in October we worked on our dinosaur unit.  We learned that "Big and small, God made them all".

 

This was a bit of an eye opening lesson for me because it made me realize how early children are exposed the theory of evolution.  It was hard to find children's books on dinosaurs that didn't start with "Millions of years ago...".

not to scale (of course) but a fun exercise

I have been reading a book called Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham Jr.  The author warns the Christian parent who wants to raise children with a biblical worldview to be on their toes and prepared to give little ones the God-focused perspective so they are able to distinguish truth from lies from an early age.

paper plate dinos

Anyway, I'll get off my high horse as soon as I share this website named answersingenesis.org.  It was worth the time I spent in it.  Now I know how to answer some of those hard questions kids ask with truth.  As much as I hate to admit it, there were things I did not know.  Where there dinosaurs in Noah's ark?  Did dinosaurs and humans co-exist since God made them on the same day?  (among many other things).  Well, YES, AND YES are the answers and answersingenesis.org pointed me to the Scripture that backs this up.

playing archeologist with Daddy

got some cool Mom points for allowing this mess in the school room.  Can you start to see the dino rib bones in there?

Ok, so you will not believe how seriously lucky we got on this lesson.  Turns out that same week there was a Dinosaur Festival going on in our town.  What?!  A dinosaur festival.  Who organizes a dinosaur festival.  The museums in Beaumont, Texas, that's who.

There were crafts galore.  I think we reached the maximum allotment of dinosaur crafts one should make in a lifetime.  The girls were pumped!

They had these dinosaur models made with wire and were letting the kids create the outside layer with paper mache. 

Pure joy knowing the mess wasn't being made in my home!

Look at that smile at the prospect of getting her hands all wet and sticky

 Here she is placing her gluey layer on...

and here is how the final product looks!  They then gave the children paint to color the white paper mache layer.  Can it get in any better than this? 

Yes, it can...

They had dino paw templates the kiddos used to make footprints all over the place.

They also had a huge rock with tons of little dinosaurs inside and the kids had to hammer their way into it.  You know I wouldn't have done it at home HAD I KNOWN.

Here is our little group showing off what they dug out.

Ok. I loved this craft and kicked myself for not coming up with it at home.  Super easy.  Dinosaur dress-up!

Making the spikes of a stegosaurus by folding paper plates in half and stapling them together.

Here is some kid wearing hers.

We got lots of entertainment out of this at home and for the days to follow.

They got to color each spike to make it unique

Check this one out.  It's a plastic glove with two of the fingers tied back to make it look like a dinosaur foot.  They put candycorns in the finger tips to make it look like nails and filled the rest with popcorn.  Ingenious!

They also had this little guys you could scratch and decorate.  Nice keepsake.

Needless to say the whole family enjoyed this lesson very much.  Even the baby got into the spirit of things :)

So much so that we decided the theme for his first birthday party would be DINOSAURS!!!