This term we have been exploring the concept of treasure - things that are valuable or valued.
FOSSILS - treasures from the past
Dinosaurs are often a poplar topic, but I decided to look more at HOW we know about dinosaurs for this session, rather than WHAT we know.
We role-played being paleontologists, finding paper 'bones' and trying to figure out what kind of dinosaur it could be. We thought about different ways paleontologists find clues - looking at the location of bones, similarities to other bones, other clues around such as trace fossils (footprints etc), discussing ideas with others. We also talked about skills paleontologists would need - patience, perseverance, observation skills, note taking skills etc. The large 'bone' in the photo is a life-sized 3D printed giant moa femur bone.
Next we looked at inference and ideas that could be gathered from looking at trace fossils (in this case footprints). What do we think happened here? What makes us think that? What other ideas do we have? Where could we find more information to help us understand more?
Children then explored this topic further in a variety of ways - by looking at the dinosaur books, finding out online about NZ dinosaur fossils and paleontologists, drawing their idea of a place to live if they lived in the time of dinosaurs (check out Sem's amazing detailed drawings below!), thinking about the pros and cons of having a dinosaur as a pet by making a 'plus, minus, and interesting' chart to arrange their thoughts.
