Today we had an awesome treat! Butterfield Canyon Elementary had a fun assembly for K-2nd Grade, and they invited parents and preschoolers! "Dinosaur Train" is a show on PBS where a family of cartoon pterodactyls (plus one adopted T-rex!) travel back through prehistoric times by riding the Dinosaur Train through the time tunnel to learn about other dinosaurs. During each episode, Dr. Scott, a paleontologist pops in to teach more about the dinosaur from that day's episode.
This is Dr. Scott:
(The assembly didn't start until 9:45, but I went in and sat down when I took the kids to school...A little more than an hour early!...to make sure we got some good seats! The plus of being there early? Time to go up and meet Dr. Scott!)
They showed a episode of Dinosaur Train, and then when it was over Dr. Scott showed slides of some recent discoveries. He showed skulls of two new dinosaurs that had been found, and he said that we were some of the first kids he's showed the slides to since they were announced! Then he told the kids how they hunt for and discover bones in the earth and talked about the tools they use to dig.
Next Dr. Scott played a game where he would show a slide of an animal (giraffe, lion) and ask the kids if it was a dinosaur. Then he'd show a slide of a dinosaur and talk about what that dinosaur had in common with the animal in the previous slide.
After about 3 different animals, he put up this peacock slide and asked his question. When all the kids answered "NO!", he said, "Oh, see...I finally got you!"
Then he talked about the recent discoveries that show us dinosaurs are like birds...that they had feathers and sat on nests...and how every year we learn something new about dinosaurs that we didn't know before!
He told the kids that they didn't have to wait until they are grown ups to discover dinosaurs...that they could go right out to their back yards and study birds to learn more about how dinosaurs behaved.
You can tell that Brinkley REALLY enjoyed herself...
Then came the really exciting part: Buddy, the baby T-Rex came out to say hi! He stood by the door as the school kids left the room to go back to class and gave them all a High 5 (er, High 2, since that's all the fingers T-Rex has!).
(By the way...Spencer is the blond head blocking Buddy...He didn't sit with us...He sat with his class!)
It was a riot! If there was a down side, it was that after the school kids went back to class we (meaning the preschool moms!) went to say "HI" to Buddy on the way out. Rather than forming a nice, civil line...the mom's sent their kids a-running, until Buddy was mobbed...(Literally...Look at the picture!) He turned around after only 2 minutes, and went to head back into his little room. It was then that Michael and Mia went scrambling to try to at least touch his tail. It would have been fun to get a better picture, but oh well! This one is pretty funny!
We came home, and Michael told me he's going to go outside and start discovering dinosaurs right now.
After about 3 different animals, he put up this peacock slide and asked his question. When all the kids answered "NO!", he said, "Oh, see...I finally got you!"
Then he talked about the recent discoveries that show us dinosaurs are like birds...that they had feathers and sat on nests...and how every year we learn something new about dinosaurs that we didn't know before!
He told the kids that they didn't have to wait until they are grown ups to discover dinosaurs...that they could go right out to their back yards and study birds to learn more about how dinosaurs behaved.
You can tell that Brinkley REALLY enjoyed herself...
Then came the really exciting part: Buddy, the baby T-Rex came out to say hi! He stood by the door as the school kids left the room to go back to class and gave them all a High 5 (er, High 2, since that's all the fingers T-Rex has!).
(By the way...Spencer is the blond head blocking Buddy...He didn't sit with us...He sat with his class!)
It was a riot! If there was a down side, it was that after the school kids went back to class we (meaning the preschool moms!) went to say "HI" to Buddy on the way out. Rather than forming a nice, civil line...the mom's sent their kids a-running, until Buddy was mobbed...(Literally...Look at the picture!) He turned around after only 2 minutes, and went to head back into his little room. It was then that Michael and Mia went scrambling to try to at least touch his tail. It would have been fun to get a better picture, but oh well! This one is pretty funny!
We came home, and Michael told me he's going to go outside and start discovering dinosaurs right now.
(Okay...Maybe I'll make him wait until the snow stops!)
