Activity:
Dinosaur Collage — this is a “dinosaur dig”.
The teacher discusses how and where dinosaur bones are found, in an interactive discussion with students, explaining with photographs that dinosaur skeletons are often dug up incomplete, so that the scientists have to guess what parts are missing. The children are told they will have to “dig” for dinosaur bones, and they may take five pieces out of the collage box which will be passed around by the teacher. Random pieces are selected of different sizes and shapes. After deciding what parts of the dinosaur skeleton they have gathered they can paste those on their cardboard and draw in the parts that are missing by connecting one scrap to another using a marking pen, inventing new, never before seen, dinosaurs.

Process:
All materials are placed in a shoe box and then covered with sawdust or sand. Children must reach into the shoe box selecting 5 items without looking. This is their “dig”. Then they place their 5 items on the construction paper, arranging them so that they look like skeletal remains — legs, arms, claws, rib cage, tail, jaws — of the dinosaur and connect and complete the creature by using a making pen to draw in the missing parts. Result is a new, never before seen, dinosaur creature. Sand may be glued on as a final touch for texture and authenticity. Styrofoam pieces may be used for dinosaur eggs.

Materials & Tools:
One 8 1/2” X 11” sheet of heavy gray construction paper or cardboard on which to glue and draw.
One shoe box. Materials for making the collage are toothpicks of different lengths, tiny wood scraps, buttons, broken pieces of Styrofoam, glue, number 10 marking pens of different colors.