Kids Wednesday: Summertime Archaeologist with dinosaurs

I tried a little summer school at the beginning of the year which my son loved until he didn't anymore.  I got a little overwhelmed working on the lesson plans and trying to stay busy all day with him so I stopped planning.  Then I saw this great post and decided that I needed to do this and work a little lesson in at the end of the summer on dinosaurs.

I started by freezing some water in a container.  Then, I added two dinosaurs and added more water.  The first part of the water at the bottom of the container thawed while I was adding the new water so that step might have been a waste of time.  Then the dinosaurs started to float!  I put a frozen container of broth on top of them and put it back in the freezer.  I added the last dinosaur to the side and filled the water to the top.  There was less floating and I finally got it to freeze.  Next time I am going to use things that are a little heavier!

I was going to put the big ice block in a container for him to work with and then I decided that it would be better to do it on the grass without anything to catch all of the ice.

The dinosaurs could be seen clearly through the ice so my son knew what he was doing as soon as he saw the ice and he was excited. 

He tried all of the tools and quickly determined that the meat mallet was the only thing worth using.  He loved it.  I explained to him that just like archaeologists, he would need to use other tools when you got closer to the dinosaur so that you didn't damage the dinosaur.

He used the brush to clear off ice when there were small chunks.  He also used warm water to clear the area. 

All of the dinosaurs were sticking out of the ice block.  It took a little hard work to get them out but we got them all out with a little team work and dried them off with a towel.  The warm water really helped a lot at the end and waiting a little for things to melt but patience isn't the best when they see the thing that they want so close.  In case you can't see, my son also wore his protective eye wear just in case any ice flew towards him and it did!!!

He took all of his dinosaurs in the tent that we set up in the backyard to enjoy a little snack after a lot of hard work.  It was easy to set up and a great experience for him.  He still talks about it and it got him a little more interested in the dinosaurs so we hope to be getting lots more books on dinosaurs at the library soon!