Hi mom friends,
I need your help with something that my son in kindergarten is doing in school.....I need ideas from you all especially those who work with children and you know you are : )
His kindergarten class has a family project that is due by the end of the month about dinosaurs, we have to create some type of model to make and bring to the class to share. I have been racking my brains and researching till I am blue in the face and those of you who know me, know that I can come up with some cool things for the kids, but this one I am having problems with. I just need some ideas, preferable ones that don't entail too much crazy stuff, they said no clay and no play dough.
If you have any ideas please send them my way, my son want's to try to do a T-Rex, not like that will be our final choice, but will see. Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated!!
First, thank you all so much, got some wonderful ideas!! We have decided to go with a dinosaur cake,he can help all the way too!! Found a wonderful website that shows you exactly how to do it, my son watched it and loved it. Also, we are going to make a little toilet paper/paper towel T-Rex as well, just a simple version that he can handle, I know how they feel if they don't have that "project" might feel that the cake will be a treat, which it will, but just want to make everyone happy. What a great place someone created here at Mamasource!! Thank you all again.
Hi W.....my sister-in-law just had to do that with her pre-schooler. She used the empty toilet paper tubes and paper towel tubes. Taped them together and spray painted it. It looked really good. She stood it in a shoe box...and used green paper w/ slits to make it look like grass. Hope it works for you.
Well, one site I love for kids craft ideas is http://www.dltk-kids.com/ - tons of cool ideas!
An idea I had would be to draw the parts of a t-rex on oaktag, your son can color them and cut them out. Then connect them using those rivet-type fasteners (can find them in the scrapbooking aisle of the craft store, can't remember the real name right now...)
(Edited to add: Brads - they are called brads!..it was driving me crazy until I remembered the name... = )
Besides arms and legs, make sure his jaw moves - he can roar better that way (and show off his teeth!)
If he needs to stand on his own, make some kind of easel back for him.
Gotta say, that's a pretty advanced homework assignment for a kindergardener!! = (
Good luck!
Hi, W. --
This is the first of an almost endless round of school projects that will threaten to take over your life during the course of your son's academic career -- and you already have three times all the stresses and all the joys of motherhood in your life --so do yourself a BIG favor and start thinking along the lines of "easy" and "fun" rather than "grand" and "amazing."
Did I just strike a chord? I'm expecting I might have, because your request has just a hint of the ambitious perfectionist's desperation in it! Believe me, I know all about that feeling from first-hand experience! But I'm working on it....LOL !!!!!
The easiest way to make a model without using clay or play dough is to use paper. Go to the dollar store and buy a coloring book. Have your son color the dinosaurs. You should also fine some great scenery in the book -- mountains and trees, etc. If you're lucky, you'll even find a volcano, which your son will probably love. Take a shoebox or a larger box and start by letting your son glue the mountains and trees to the back of the box. To make the dinosaur stand up in the foreground, cut a strip of thin cardboard or construction paper and fold it in half. Glue the bottom of the paper strip to the box. Glue the dinosaur to the part of the paper that stands up in the air. Viola! Instant standing dinosaur.
That's all that's really required, but your son can add more as (and if) time allows. Have him color a piece of paper blue and glue it to the bottom of the box to create a lake. Or just use construction paper. Small green pieces of paper paper colored green can be blades of grass. Make them stand up around the water the same way you folded a piece of paper to make the dinosaur stand up.
Drape some brown twine or yarn from the top of the box to create vines. It's easy to cut leaves from green construction paper and thread them onto your "vines" before looping from the top of the box.
If you pick up all the supplies in one quick shopping trip, and have your son color all the pieces over the next couple of days, it should only take about an hour or so to put the model together.
Good luck!
Hi, I was just at Michael's in Gainesville and they had wooden dino models and they also had white plastic dinos that you can paint.
I was just at Michaels and saw dinosaur 3D puzzles when put together it looks like the bones. It is pretty cool and it is in the clearance section for $10. They had a couple different ones, but not sure about T-rex. Don't know if it is in all Michaels but I did see it at the one on Rt 1. Hope this helps.
Is it possible to make a model using paper mache'? You can find great recipes online. Also, how about just making a 3-d model of one using a toilet paper holder and construction paper pieces cut and glued to it? If you want to make the T-Rex, use the cardboard paper towel holder as the base; if you can get a second one, make that into a tree to show the scale of the T-Rex. You can make a whole exhibit out of the construction paper, boxes, and toilet roll inserts. If it's a family project, go to the library and check out a few books on origami, and let Dad try his hand at making a few origami prehistoric birds to perch in the tree. A lake can be just a blue circle cut out and glued to the base of the board.
I think I can help. I am not sure what your qualifications are as far as "making" a dinosaur, but if you go to my website www.EduHelpBooks.com and then click "Enter Bookstore Here", it will take you to my online store. Next, in the search bar, put "dinosaur kid kit" It will bring up several options. The t-rex ones are the Dinosaur Sticker and Puzzle--this is a model made out of balsa wood. Your son would need help punching some of the pieces out but he could put them together and paint or stain it. The book is a sticker spotters guide that would really teach him a lot. The other one with t-rex is an excavation kit. It is a "rock" and you dig the bones out. They are made of a resin plastic and he could very likely do the whole thing himself. The book with this one is very age appropriate and I promise you he would enjoy the whole experience. If those ideas won't work, let me know and I can see what I have in some of out other books.
S.
Take some chicken wire/mesh to make the T-Rex shape, paper mache over the form and then paint.
Hi there! Have you thought about doing a cake? I'm pretty sure that I've seen a dinosaur cake pan recently (like in the past few weeks) and I believe that they have a cupcake pull-apart that is a dinosaur as well. I don't know how the teacher would feel about bringing in food- but it would be fun to let him help decorate- or tell you what colors to put and where. Just a thought. Good luck!
You could use papier mache (sp?) and focus your project on one thing you want to tell other people about dinosaurs. Like you could recreate a ankylosaurus' back scales and explain how they weren't actually horn, they were tough callused skin etc... something like that.
That being said, what is a "family project"? I find this very interesting...is his class actually presuming to assign YOU work? Unbelieveable if that is the case. Will the interference in our families by the school system never cease? This is one of the main reasons I homeschool. I would complain about that if I were you. They have no business making requirements like that of you. Parents should be involved, but it's not the school's job to enforce that. They are overstepping their boundaries and authority.
Hey W.,
I have a T-Rex birthday cake pan that would be perfect. You might be able to find one at Michaels Craft store or some place like that. You can also use Floam. It can harden and make a great dinosaur. It would take a lot of work and be pretty messy, but you could always try paper mashay (sp).
I know this may not help you but, I think it's crazy that a kindergartner has to do a project like this. It's 100% ludicrous.
However, on a different note...have you thought about contacting the discovery zone in D.C. They may have some paper models you can make. Or the natural history museum in D.C. might have some as well.
I would probably just go buy one...and say that my kid is just really talented. j/k lol :)
I agree with the other poster that said it's ludricrous - the parents do more work than the kids do and spend more money also! And why put parameters on the materials used?? I liked the coloring book idea....of course now the kids are older and I have all new sets of issues...haha.
What about a paper mache dinasour? R.
W.,
This may seems crazy and may not be within the "rules", but how about using modeling chocolate or making a dinosaur cake that you can then share with the whole class? I'd ask the teacher if this was allowable first. Or, you could make a pattern and then make the dinosaur out of wood shapes or sew a dinosaur out of fabric and stuff it. That is definitely something your son could help with.
Best of luck. Let us know what you decide, sounds like a fun project!
A.
What about using junk from around the house (especially from the recycling bin and things that would normally go into the trash. This is teaching your son the lesson of being environmentally conscious, thrifty and creative! Have fun and good luck!
