This was our last summer lesson, and starting on Monday we'll be following Habitat Schoolhouse's preschool curriculum! I asked Aaron what he wanted to do, and he requested the baking soda + vinegar volcano! I tied in dinosaurs again, and did my best to switch it up from our last dinosaur/volcano lesson back in May. You can check out that lesson here!
Click here to get the dinosaur key-word printable as seen in the picture above!
We started the lesson with this play dough sensory set up!
Dinosaur cards - Target Dollar Spot find
Alphabet stamps - Walmart
Dinosaur pasta - Walmart or Sprouts
Key Word Printables - click the link above!
Dinosaur figures - The Dollar Tree (not the best, but hey they were only $1!)
Wooden rolling pin - Amazon, as part of a wooden baking tools set
This was such a fun and diverse set up! Aaron could explore the different types of dinosaurs by holding the pasta, stamping the pasta, and matching them to the dinosaur cards. He used the dinosaur figures to stamp footprints and we talked about how fossils are made. He also grabbed the letter stamps and instantly started stamping out his name! Then he would combine a few letters and asked me what his "word" spelled, which is always a funny game! He always giggles as I try to pronounce his words, such as "sprrrrwkt."
When he was done exploring and playing, I had him practice spelling the key words by using the printed word strips on the side and the letter stamps. At first, he was a little overwhelmed, so I told him I would find the right letter stamps and he just had to say the letter out loud as he stamped them. He relaxed and really enjoyed doing that with me!
Hunting for "Fossil" Letters - Letter Recognition & Fine-Motor Skills
We cleared away the play dough and it was time for fossil hunting! I hid wooden letters (Dollar Tree find) that together spelled the word "dinosaur" in the dirt and explained to him that he was an archeologist! He had to carefully use his little shovel and a brush to find the letters in the sand and excavate them. Once he had all of the letters, he put them in order to spell the word "dinosaur!"
Free the Trapped Dinosaurs - Cutting Practice
Next up was some cutting practice! I put 1-2 dinosaurs in each wooden bowl and then covered them with brown streamers. I lightly taped the streamer on the bottom so that it wouldn't slip off. Aaron loved cutting away and was so excited when a dinosaur was able to come free! After he freed them all, he spent a while cutting the pieces of streamers while I held them up for him.
Volcano Science
This one is always a hit!! I constructed this volcano by putting a clear plastic cup on the bottom and an upside down paper cup on top. I cut out the bottom of the paper cup to make the hole of the volcano. Next, I covered the cups with old play dough and set it out overnight to dry out. Then I filled in this sensory bin with rocks, fake succulents, and plastic dinosaurs!
For the main event, I poured in baking soda and red + yellow food coloring inside of the volcano. I handed each of my kids squeeze bottles filled with vinegar and let them spray it into the volcano.
As a note, this volcano was definitely too tall! They had to squeeze their entire bottle of vinegar in the volcano before it barely started spilling out the top... so make yours shorter if you try this!
Overall, we had to use a lot of vinegar and baking soda, but they LOVED it! So it was totally worth it!
Dinosaur Fossil Salt Dough
This one turned out so well! I've never done it before, so I wasn't sure if it would show up enough. But it worked out! We made the salt dough together, and both of my kids loved using their hand to squish the dough!
Click here to get the full instructions to make salt dough!
Ingredients: (I did 1/2 of this recipe to make 5 fossils)
2 cups flour
1/2 cup table salt
3/4 cup water
We cut out the circle by using a glass jar, and then we squished our plastic dinosaurs into the dough.
Once it was done baking, I added the fossils to the dirt sensory bin from earlier and had him hunt and excavate again! As we went, I asked him if he could tell which fossil matched each of his dinosaur cards on the side of the bin. The best was that he needed to look and touch the fossils to figure it out. It was a really good sensory, imaginative activity!
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