Science Inquiry Assignment

Provocation & Observation

Provocation

Materials:

- Cotton balls- Pipe cleaners- Foam- Felt- Paper- Plastic dinosaurs- Glue sticks - Scissors- feathers- Glitter

The only things I had to do to prep the activity was to cut the foam and felt into half slices. Also when laying out the materials talking to the children about different types of areas they thinks dinosaurs live.

What happened?

As I was laying out the materials the children all came running over to the table and were taking their seats. The children each were taking guesses about what we were making: A rocket ship, a boat, a dinosaur… A VALCANO! They each had very different ideas and then I looked at all of them and asked them “Where do you think dinosaurs live?” Then all the hands came shooting up and they each had a different idea: in the snow, no in usa, no in a boat, the jungle, a volcano….my backyard. I then allowed each child to take the materials I had and let them go wild with making a habitat. I didn’t want to take away from their creative thought so I would just simple ask questions.

Questions

How do you think dinosaurs stay dry? they have a home

Could dinosaurs fit into an airplane to fly? I think so..could you make me one to try?

How will your dinosaur get over the river Well I am going to make a boat because they could not like water

What materials will show your boat? I think this feather looks really nice

How does a long neck find food in the snow? Oh, they don’t live near the snow…no veggies there

The children had played with their habitats for over an hour. They seemed to really enjoy making them as I finished with one group there was another set of children that had wanted to come over and try it out.

Analysis of Observation

Learning Area

- Science & Technology o 2.1 state problems and pose questions before and during investigation.

One of the children had wanted to build a shelter for the dinosaur that would be living in her habitat. However she wasn’t sure what type to build because the dinosaur was so large (long neck). We had talked about the different types of homes then the ones that she felt would fit: a tent or teepee. We both agree on making that then she had to decide how she would go about making that. She then had taken scissors and cut a rectangle and glued two sides together. This had given her the shape she had needed and bonus it was standing on its own.

- The Arts (Visual) o V3.1… their imagination to create visual art forms (3-D)

During the habitat learning one of the children wanted to make a volcano that was shooting out lava. He had a bit of a hard time with this because he could get how to make the volcano stand up (using felt). He was getting upset…you could hear it in his voice and the way he was looking as though he was going to cry. I went over to him and got him to count back from 10 to help him re focus himself. After he had relaxed we started talking about different ways we could get the felt to stand. We decided to try folding it on the bottom to make a lip to help it stand. This had worked for a bit but it was following over for part of it. So we finally decided on leaving it as it was and attaching it to the shooting lava he had made. This was able to get the volcano to stand up without troubles.

- Math o DM5.1 sort, classify, and compare objects and describe the attributes used

As the children we sorting out the different dinosaurs that divided them up by: Height Size Colour Food they ate

I thought that was great way to divided up the dinosaurs. Then as they children were doing so I was asking each of them which one they thought would do well in their habitat. Each of the children had different reasons. Some believed that having a snowy area would be good for a long neck but when asked where they

would get the fresh vegetables they didn’t think it was as good because the dinosaurs wouldn’t be able to find food. Well the t-rex might not do so well in the water because they have small arms and can’t swim with little arms.

What inquiries are the children making through their play?

- The sizes of the dinosaurs- What they eat- How wide can they be- How sharp are there teeth- Can they fly in the clouds - Could they take a plane- Why are they not around anymore- Are the like my cat/dog- Can they talk

The children each had something that they were learning or had wanted to know more about for the dinosaurs. I had taken notes of this and added it into my thinking when looking into doing my KWL chart.

Planning – The ‘Intentional’ Teacher

Initial Engagement

KWL

Materials

o Paper o Makerso Pictureso Extra paper for notes

What happened?

I had designed the KWL chart at home and posted the chart in the classroom. On the back side it says “DINOSAURS” with a dinosaur matching it. I had pictures up with me of the children working on the dinosaur habitats and the dinosaur hand prints. However during the KWL chart discussion the picture taker (ECE) had forgotten to even when I tried to que her to take some. However after the KWL the children had gotten right into dinosaurs and were adding their own notes and taking to me about adding things.

My role during the KWL was to ask the children question about what they wanted to know about dinosaurs and take what they know and turn that into a question. At first it was a little slow because I did feel nervous talking to the children up front alone; however, once the ball got rolling it went faster. I felt that some of the children had things they had wanted to say but might have been a little to say to say them out aloud. So during some free play I went around to each of the children and talk to them. One of the children had asked if Free Willy was a dinosaur. I thought that was something I could look in for her. So I had made a small power point that I review with her whether Free Willy was and we found out no because he is a mammal.

I had left the KWL up on the wall the entire time we were learning about dinosaurs to allow the children to reflect on what we were doing.

Investigation

Materials:

Videoso Stegosaurus, “Dinosaurs Songs by StoryBots

I had chosen this series because it had really good music and was teaching children different facts to music. I personally find children are able to remember things when there is a tone attached to it.

They children will start singing along to the song and without knowing they are retaining different facts.

o Dinosaur Facts & Fun Dinosaur Cartoon Videos for Children I had chosen this video because I thought it was funny. When the t-rex goes on

to say he is the king. I thought what a great way to introduce the different statues in the dinosaur kingdom…and his voice made me laugh.

In the next video clip the long neck is acting like a tree and of course all my children wanted to join in and act that out. I couldn’t refuse…. But of course the camera was forgotten again.

These are just some clips from the video that I felt really capture what I wanted the children to learn.

Protecting himself with his spiky tail from the other dinosaurs looking to come to close

The video is showing the size of a stegosaurs brain and how the t-rex teeth isn’t any match for the plates on the back of a stegosaurs. The children had all laughed about the brain size but given more time this could go off into a talk about comparing the brain to other animals and ourselves.

The video is talking about how the T-rex is king of the dinosaurs, how they weight up to 9 tons and how standing up they are bigger than a double decker bus. The children had after taken different toys and tried to measure the plastic dinosaurs to see if they were bigger.