The Kindergarten classes at Avocado Elementary School have been studying dinosaurs, focusing on the different types of dinosaurs and the environment in which they lived.

One class project was for each student to create a diorama showing their interpretations of what the dinosaurs' surroundings were like, what they ate, etc. The students were very enthusiastic and creative with this project. One student in Ms. Lane's class made a working volcano. A student in Ms. Horwitz's class made his own clay to form a tricerpatops and other dinosaurs, froze them to make them hard, and painted them. One of his dinosaurs is shown hatching from an egg. He used mulch, soil, rocks and plants from his back yard to create his landscape.

Another project was to make and wear dinosaur masks and hats. Photos and instructions on how to make your own dino mask or hat are available. Three categories of dinosaurs have been featured in this project. Ms. Mobley's class made flying dinosaur (Pterodon) wings, and a Pterodactyl nest hat. Ms. Horwitz's class concentrated on aquatic dinosaur mask/hats, and Ms. Lane's class made masks of land-dwelling dinosaurs.

The childrens' ideas were also put together to create a storybook about dinosaurs, entitled "If I'd Been Born a Dinosaur." Some color illustrations of dinosaurs were made, and the students shared their thoughts about dinosaurs. Illustrations and stories were created for land rovers, water dwellers, and flyers. By using the masks, the storybook can be "acted out."

The students also made dinosaur eggs by hard boiling the eggs, slightly cracking open the shells, and soaking the eggs in Kool-Aid (red works best!). Kool-Aid that has soaked into the cracks creates a striped effect, and it gives the eggs an interesting taste for those who wish to taste-test!

To tie in with our dinosaur lessons, the children took a field trip to the Miami Museum of Science, where they saw a dinosaur display, and they got a chance to see what dinosaurs are believed to have really looked like. This display included a life-size moving Tyrannosaurus Rex, and other moving mechanical dinosaurs, complete with "roaring" and other sound effects.

To conclude our dinosaur activities, we reviewed our original learning objectives and had a question and answer session to assess what our students had learned.

Enjoy these pages. We hope you have as much fun looking through them as we had learning about these fascinating prehistoric creatures.

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