Dinosaur cave

For our dinosaur topic study I created a dinosaur cave for the dramatic play center. With brown paper I crumpled up brown roll paper and taped it on the house. It looked like a rock cave. I placed a number of large and small dinosaurs for the children to play with. The blocks were also available for the children to build structures to add to the cave. The children loved creating a museum with the blocks and would place the dinosaurs on the structure displaying them. The students would often make tickets and distribute them to all of the children in the class and would invite them to the dinosaur shows. In the dinosaur shows the children would give some factual information about the dinosaurs displayed and they would also reenact what might have happened if some dinosaurs met. I would encourage the children to talk about why some dinosaurs would battle with each other and what defenses they would use. The children also extended their learning by writing down the names of some dinosaurs and add to the display. One of my students made a Grand Opening sign for the museum her and her classmates made. This was a great cave that encouraged imaginative play, use of prior knowledge, writing and language interaction.