A DINO Mite Month!

The theme of the spring Scholastic Book Fair is DINO-Mite. Dinosaurs are such a fun theme, and so many students are already interested in the topic. In the library, we planned dinosaur themed activities and read dinosaur books this whole month in order to get pumped up for the book fair.

Some of the books we read:

We also made a display of picture books and dinosaur fact books that students were able to check out.

The Kindergartners and 1st graders went on a Dinosaur Hunt in the library. It was alot of work to set it up for each class, but they all enjoyed it. We turned the lights off and made the library as dark as we could. I put a YouTube clip of Jurassic Jungle sounds on the smartboard, which gave us some light (so the kids wouldn't be scared) and added to the atmosphere:

We cut out dinosaur footprints and made a path through the shelves, which the students had to follow. Along the way, they were looking for dinosaur eggs. We used plastic Easter eggs (on clearance at Hobby Lobby after the holiday), and inside each each was a tiny glowstick, which made them glow in the dark. They had to crawl through a cave at the end (really, the tables all lined up) and then they got to meet Bob the Dinosaur (graciously loaned by my son), who had some eggs, too, in case a student didn't find one along the way:

We let them open their eggs once they were seated on the carpet together, and they got to adopt the baby dinosaurs inside the eggs. For the Read Together, we chose Can I Have a Stegosaurus, Mom? by  Lois Grambling.

The 2nd graders did an entry in their art journals, making little dinosaur skeletons out of cotton swabs on dinosaur silhouettes that I printed out:

And the 3rd graders made dinosaur skeletons on the ground, using paper towel tubes, following our reading of Barnum's Bones by Tracey Fern, which recounts the discovery of the T-rex by Barnum Brown.

Even though each class did the same activity, all the dinosaur skeletons turned out different, and I enjoyed  seeing the students have so much fun with something as simple as cardboard tubes.

 

We have a few other things up our sleeves for the DINO-Mite book fair, so you haven't heard the last of this!