Today the students pretended to time travel back into the past to visit a time where dinosaurs roamed the land. From a Tyrannosaurus Rex to a Stegosaurus, Merry introduced the students to a variety of dinosaurs and had the students brainstorm about what each dinosaur looked like and how it might have acted. The students talked about how some dinosaurs had sharp teeth and claws and could run super fast, while others had long necks and big feet. The students also pointed out that some dinosaurs had scaly skin while others appeared to be smoother.
Merry showed the students images of dinosaurs and made a brainstorm list of their characteristics.
Students using tools and natural objects to experiment creating textures.
While making textures, one student remarked, "I used this pointy tool to stab the clay. I dragged it to push the clay down to make shapes with volume."
Another student used dowels and ribbon tools to create patterned textures.
Once the students had experimented creating textures, Merry demonstrated how to use the technique of “pinch and pull” to create the bodies for their dinosaurs. After the demonstration, the students excitedly started on creating their very own dinosaurs with the clay.
One student described his dinosaur by saying, "Cody is a Defasaurus. My dinosaur has a bunch of scratches, because it got into a fight with a T-Rex and won."
Later the student explained that he added spines on his dinosaur so that it could protect itself. Also, since the Defasaurus had been in a fight with a T-Rex, "it only has one eye, becaues the T-Rex tore it off." When asked how the dinosaur might feel about that, he responded, "It doesn't mind, because it can see better with just one."
Another student used the "pinch and pull" technique to give his dinosaur a long neck and tail.
The same student used the pinching technique to give his dinosaur fins for swimming. He explained, "it's a water dinosaur, and it uses the plates on its back to attack its prey."
This student first rolled out a long coil to make a dinosaur with a long neck. "Practice, practice, practice rolling," he proclaimed when asked how he was able to get the neck so long.
This student then used the "pinch and pull" technique to make the neck of his dinosaur even longer.
This student's dinosaur had many characteristics. Her dinosaur is able to tell when a T-Rex is attacking it so "it uses its horn to smack it! Then it plays dead and hides from the T-Rex."
When it was time for clean-up, Merry explained to the students that it was important to wrap their clay dinosaurs in saran wrap so that it wouldn’t dry out, and they could keep working on it during the next class period if they wished. Merry then ended class by having a small circle-up discussion about the dinosaurs that the students created. She had them share one characteristic about their dinosaurs while the other students listened.
The students then returned safely from the time of the dinosaurs back into present day just in time for recess. Tune in next time for part two of the trip to the time of the dinosaurs.