Since pretty much every kiddo already knows about Triceratops and its existence, I included some of the etymology of the name: how "tri" = three, and "cera" = horn, and "tops" = face or head. Some of the older kiddos thought that was interesting, and I figure it's never too early to start our word roots!
The coloring activity was actually making these cute little movable Triceratops figures - I love 'em! Here's Kiddo's:
It took more time than I anticipated, but it was sure good to have the scholars helping cut out and assemble the pieces for the kiddos! The head pivots, and that makes the mouth open & close - it took me a while to get that part. (Some kids did NOT like that the brad had to go through the dino's eye, since they had colored their eyes specially; I think we tried to put it *next to* the eye if we could.)
After that coloring activity, we went on a Triceratops food hunt.
I totally should've gotten a picture of the little "plant stands" I made for that, but essentially each one was made of a sheet of green construction paper, sliced most of the way through and rolled up to look like a clump of grass. I taped that to a paper plate to make it stand up, and it actually worked pretty well.
The kids LOVED their food hunt! It was great to get them out and moving, although it was also quite difficult to contain all of them... and then there was some skirmishing over who got the most "grass," and whose grass was whose, when it wasn't in their hot little hands...
We didn't have time to make our Triceratops hats, although those would've been kind of fun - three paper cones rolled up and taped onto paper plates, tied on for the kiddos with strings. It seemed like a good idea, but they were pretty maxed out and ready for lunch by the end of class, anyway.
