pasta dinosaur dig science land animals zoology kindergarten 2nd preschool

Pasta Dinosaur Dig

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Hi! This is Future Ticia 2024, and I’m updating this post and thought I’d pop in to start and say a few things about our pasta dinosaur dig to warn you. This was written back in the dark ages of the internet back in 2011, so my original pictures are small, and not that great. I did recreate our pasta dinosaur dig, more or less so I could take a picture or two with some bigger pictures. This was a great science lesson and would be great as part of a dinosaur unit or an inspiration for a dinosaur sensory bin. Also if you’re studying land animals (or general zoology, we did eventually study both), I would totally do this as part of the dinosaur chapter. I now return you to Past Ticia 2011, I’ll pop back in from time to time.

pasta dinosaur dig

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What started the pasta dinosaur dig

In researching the state of New Jersey I found out it was the site of the first nearly complete dinosaur skeleton, it was just missing a skull.

Haddonfield, New Jersey was the site of the dig, and so that is how the hadrosaurus was named.  I was all excited and was going to make that our animal for New Jersey, but we don’t know all that much about it.  Mainly because there is no skull found for one, which is leading to a lot of theories that this may not be a separate species.  Now, the state of New Jersey is not going along with that theory.

So, in honor of this being the site of the first dinosaur dig I decided to have our own dinosaur dig, you know with 11 kids crowded around my dining room table.  I searched my Evernote to find ideas, and all of them took a lot more time to prepare (because of course I decided to do this the night before).

Future Ticia 2024 will note I was inspired by an idea from a blog that is now private. So I have removed that link.

Dinosaur Dig lesson

Dinosaur-booklist-for-kids

When they all got there we first read “Digging Up Dinosaurs,” which I knew from past experience would be perfect for this (I have an entire Dinosaur booklist from my kids brief dinosaur obsession).  As a caveat for those who care, it does say millions and millions of years ago and all of the other evolutionary stuff, but I just said, “A long time ago,” (in a galaxy far far away).

Pasta Dinosaur Dig Supplies

If you do a lot of cooking, you probably have all of these supplies in your house.

Pasta dinosaur dig sensory bin

rice, orzo, penne pasta, macaroni noodles, shell pasta (the larger the shell you buy, the larger the dinosaur), plastic storage bin to hold it all

Future Ticia 2024, I just recreated it with a glass bin (which obviously I wouldn’t use with little kids) and I found it all but the shell pasta in my pantry. I will say back when I wrote this post, not all of these were commonly in my pantry. I’ve gotten much better at cooking in the last 10 years.

Performing our pasta dinosaur dig

Each kid got a small tub filled with rice and a pasta shell, about 10-15 penne pasta, 4 macaroni noodles, and 10-15 orzo noodles.

finding dinosaur bones in the pasta dinosaur dig
seriously past Ticia, why did I save them so small, and I no longer have the original to get a bigger version.

Their job was to dig through the pasta and put together a dinosaur skeleton.

Let me just say this activity was a HIT with all of the kids from the 11-year-old girl to my 4-year-old.

putting together pasta dinosaur

All of the kids asked to take home their rice and pasta mixture, so I gave them bags to put it in.

I will warn you this does require sweeping up afterward or a good vacuum.  If I’d planned better I would have used bigger tubs and less rice, but I didn’t think ahead super well, and these were the size tubs we had.

So, not a perfect project, but really fun.

pasta dinosaur dig science land animals zoology kindergarten 2nd preschool

Tips from Future Ticia 2024 to make this run smoother

First, I would use a bigger bin for each kid. At the time I used a bin that holds about one meal. It works, but it was messy, as I said.

Next, let them talk through how they arranged their skeleton. That’s part of the fun of this, and why it’s so similar to real dinosaur digs. Paleontologists don’t necessarily know how the skeletons are put together, so trying to put together a skeleton led to a lot of discussion on how it best fits together.

I think having the orzo mixed in with the rice was a very good call. I would only use the orzo if you are doing this activity with 3rd grade and up. The younger kids did not differentiate between the orzo and the rice. But for older kids it would be a great way to think through how scientists are telling the difference between rocks and fossils. What are the tell-tale differences?

And I might think about putting a tarp or something else underneath the whole table I could just roll up and shake out outside.

More great early elementary learning

My kids were in kindergarten when we did this, but the oldest kid participating was in fifth grade I would guess, but I’ll share some more early elementary ideas.

Dinosaur dig picture from

originally published March 27, 2011


Comments

13 responses to “Pasta Dinosaur Dig”

  1. Melanie Avatar
    Melanie

    I LOVE it!! What a fun idea. I'm going to have to try this with Hailey.

    https://ourcraftsnthings.com

  2. littlewondersdays Avatar
    littlewondersdays

    Great idea! This is so much better than the store bought kit things that never really go together and make an even bigger mess.

  3. MaryAnne Avatar
    MaryAnne

    This is a really cool idea! And at least you can sweep/vacuum the mess!

  4. Elle Belles Bows Avatar
    Elle Belles Bows

    What fun! I bet they loved finding the pieces to a dinosaur:-)

    Thanks for sharing!

    Kerri

  5. An Almost Unschooling Mom Avatar
    An Almost Unschooling Mom

    Now I have to look up that dinosauar. It's been interesting to us, how scientists build entire skeletons from one or two bones – the kids would like to see something that was found so complete.

  6. Phyllis Avatar
    Phyllis

    I like your addition of actually building a dinosaur with the “bones.” Very cute!
    We had a dino dig once that was just dog bones. They did that over and over until the dog bones started to fall apart!

  7. I love this idea, the fact that the kids actually got to dig up bones and put their own dinosaurs together is great.

  8. learning ALL the time!!/Susan Avatar
    learning ALL the time!!/Susan

    Great idea! Looks like they had fun 🙂 I'm curious about Evernote…I've heard it mentioned a few times in various places…do you find it useful?

  9. Christy Avatar
    Christy

    I'll have to remember this when we get to NJ. Very cool!

  10. Th Headless Dinosaur…perhaps he knew Ichobad Crane…

  11. What a fantastic idea! I am excited to be joining in for the first time. I first saw “Science Sunday” at Our Side of the Mountain a while back, and have wanted to join in since then. Great link up!

  12. Very neat idea! We did dino dig with one of those 3D puzzles that I got at Michael's, but your dig is way cool. I didn't know about NJ dig even though I lived in NJ for many years. I am curious to see what else you will do with this state.

  13. […] our dinosaur dig from New Jersey on a grand scale.  Like go to the park and bury the “bones” in the giant sand […]

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