Fossil Lesson
March was dinosaur month in the kindergarten classroom at St. Bernadette school. As part of my Field 100 placement, I planned and taught an art lesson building on the dinosaur unit they had been studying. I presented a lesson focusing on different types of plant and insect fossils.
This lesson met the following Arts Education K Outcome and Indicators:
Arts Education K Outcome and Indicators
Outcome: CPK.4
Indicators
(a) Identify different lines, colours, textures, shapes, forms, and patterns in surroundings and art works, and apply this understanding in own work.
(b) Use diverse sources such as stories, poems, observations, visual images, music, sounds, or objects as inspiration for art making.
(c) Discuss how artists and scientists use their senses to observe and record characteristics of plants, animals, and humans in the environment (e.g., observing nature, sounds, movement, and visual details).
(e) Ask questions about own environment to contribute to inquiry through visual art (e.g., Why do birds have different coloured feathers? How can we use these art materials to make interesting birds? Do some birds have special meaning in some cultures? How can we use feathers in our art? Are there some feathers that we cannot use, and why?).
(f) Select from a variety of art materials, tools, and paper size when creating a visual art expression (e.g., found objects, digital cameras, household items, wire).
(g) Observe and identify details of the physical appearance of plants, animals, people, and objects, and create visual representations.
(h) Demonstrate co-ordination and development of skills in the use of simple visual art tools and materials.
(i) Discuss choices made in creating art works.
To begin the lesson, we watched a video on fossils. It explained how fossils are formed, different types of fossils and what creates a fossil.
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHM3J6igfZ8?
I then tested the students' knowledge of the video with an oral "quiz". Before watching the video I warned the students that would be asking them questions to focus their learning.
This is the quiz:
1) What is a fossil?
Something left from a plant and animal that has turned into a rock.
2) True or False:
Are many fossils from living things that are extinct?
TRUE
3) What are some of the things people have found fossils from?
Shells
Teeth
Claws
Bones
Fossilized plants
cones
seeds.
4) What replaces the hard parts to form fossils in the same shape?
a) Vitamins
b) Electrons
c) Minerals
d) Neutrons
5) Sometimes a living thing gets buried under sediment and decomposes or rots away but the outline stays the same. Over a long time the sediment turns to rock but imprint can still be seen.
What types of things do you think this happens with?
The video showed a plant leaf imprint.
6) In the video it talked about what information scientists have discovered while studying fossils. What were some of the things they said?
-
Teeth (if they ate meat- sharp and big teeth, plants- smaller teeth)
-
Footprints (traveled in group, alone, etc.)
-
What the earth might have been like millions of years ago
During and after the quiz the students shared many other learnings and asked questions about the video.
I then passed around a fossil imprint I had brought. I asked the students what type of fossil they thought it was from the examples in the video? We decided, It is most likely an imprint of a plant fossil. We discussed what it had said in the video about imprint fossils and related it back to question 6 in the quiz.
I then passed around the example I had made, and explained that they were going to make an imprint fossil of their own using insects and shells because fossils are not just dinosaurs. I explained that they had to flatten the salt dough out (not too flat though), and then take an insect or shell and press it down being very careful when removing it from the dough. I encouraged them to be creative and to fit as many imprints as they could on the dough.
The children enjoyed this lesson and one of the students said, “I am fascinated by how many kinds of fossils there are. I didn’t know that, very fascinating!”
The teacher also featured the lesson and activities on her classroom blog. https://mrsjacksonskinders16.blogspot.ca/2017/03/dinosaur-landscape.html
During the lesson my supervising teacher observed and write the following notes:
Great video (child friendly)!
Warning that there are questions after the video.
Good video questions! (referred to video)
Good use of names.
Very prepared (as always)!
Great hands-on activity!