After many recent discussions regarding dinosaurs, the preschool room was very curious and showed their enthusiasm in wanting to understand and discover further about dinosaurs. Hunter asked ‘where do dinosaurs come from?’ As there was lots of interest by the children, we decided to make our own Dinosaur Eggs in our room. All the children got stuck in with tearing up paper to use for the Papier Mache, sticking our hands into the clag to cover the paper and followed up by using our creativity to paint the eggs to make them look real.
The children wanted to see these eggs hatch straight away, so this gave us the chance to explain to the children about how we care for the eggs and how long the process goes for. Cadence told me that we need to be quiet and keep them cosy and warm; Ava told us we need to keep them company and Hunter says we need to be really gentle. Lori asked them some more questions to see what they knew about dinosaurs and their hatching process. JD Told us it will hatch in about 20 minutes, and Emily believes it will come out when there are cracks or holes in it.
It was very exciting to have done this project with the preschoolers. They have such vivid imaginations and are always increasing their knowledge. Every morning the children were committed to coming in and checking on their dinosaur eggs to see if they were warm, cosy and not lonely. When they noticed any new cracks in them, the children got very excited although Logan was very concerned and told Lori that “it broke”, Zaine responded by telling Logan “No its’ hatching”, JD needed some reassurance and said “Let Me See”. After they all investigated the eggs, Amelie wondered if they would come out, and Billy told us they are sticky.
The preschoolers had lots to say about dinosaurs, so we had many discussions about what we knew and what we wanted to know. Cadence told us that the dinosaurs will come out very little because when she was a baby she was very little, and Ava told us that it was a very hard question when asked - how long will the dinosaur stay in there? Jamie just wanted to play a game with Ava and the Eggs.
Ava was a little concerned that when the egg cracks open, will it bite us? But Andrey reassured her that it won’t bite until it grows big. Hunter closed the conversation by saying “Its going to be fun to watch them crack open”
In the following days, the preschoolers sat around in a big circle to watch and help them in their final hatching process. Everyone had a turn at pulling a little bit of shell off and exposing the baby dinosaurs. JD and Hunter correctly identified the dinosaurs as being a T-Rex and a Long Neck. We were all excited to see them finally hatch and to show any visitors to our room our hatched eggs along with telling them our story.
How this learning experience links to EYLF outcomes: Outcome 4. Children are confident and involved learners
a) Children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity.
b) Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, inquiry experimentation, hypothesizing, researching and investigating.
