Classroom use of dinosaur puzzles

[Iguanadon]

A year ago in April, I donated about 40 of my kids dinosaur puzzles to the local elementary school.  One of the teachers called a week later asking what other species I could cut.  Reason she asked is that she was going to have a "dinosaur dig" in which her 1st graders would act as paleontologists and dig up "fossils" and my puzzles would be perfect for it.  I was amazed at the idea, I thought it was fabulous.  I gladly made her 4 specific puzzles and a couple of weeks later she had her dig.  I even went and spoke to the class and showed them an actual fossil I owned thanks to a paleontologist friend of mine.

Well, today was Dinosaur Dig 2017, I was invited to attend again and what a fun time it was for me. Oh, and the kids too.  :-) 

Just a real quick overview... This is a 1st grade class with about 25 children. There are 4 tables, each table has a bucket of sand with dinosaur "bones" buried in it. The children have tools that a paleontologist would use at a dig site and they begin to unearth fossils. They then have to clean them off, assemble them and then identify which species they found. Then in their log book they answer questions specific for that species. After they all finish, the bones are re-buried, the kids rotate to a new table and do it again until they've dug up all 4 species and written about them.

I am so thrilled that my silly little puzzles have a practical and educational use. I look forward to supplying more "fossils" for years to come.

Iggy

[Sycamore67]

Well done....and happy kids

[WayneMahler]

Wow. Great way to make an impact on the education of those kids. Iggy just seeing the smiles and excitement the teacher and you created is worth a million words. Hats off to you for a great job extremely well done. 

[Montserrat]

That is fantastic both for you and the kids!

[meflick]

What a great idea and what great fun for the kids, the teacher and you.  The kids love doing projects like this I remember from the days of helping in my kids classrooms.  

[DWSUDEKUM]

What a great way to enhance the learning of our young and to make a difference.  Thank you for doing such a great job and working with the teachers.

 

DW

[rjweb]

Great story and you should be proud of your achievements, did you give out business cards to the kids to take home to parents, looking for new customers, RJ

[Dan]

Love the story. That has got to be a great feeling. Congrats! 

[wombatie]

The photos say it all.  They had a ball.  Congratulation to you and the teacher for helping in their education and enjoyment in learning. 

 

Marg

[hawkeye10]

Great job Iggy. I like that giving back thing your doing. I also love the pictures and thanks. I do have one question, was it noisy?  

[Phantom Scroller]

Brilliant idea bet they love doing that. Roly

[lawson56]

Now that is Just so Dog Gone Cool. I Love it!!That put a Kick Start in my Morning Iggy.Thanks.

[don in brooklin on]

What a great idea.  My daughter is an educator and I am sure she will love the idea.  

I will reluctantly have her look at the blog this weekend as I am sure she will want to do it too.

If I wanted to order the patterns from your web site are they for sale and if so which ones would I ask for.  

 

Thanks 

 

 

 

[Iguanadon]

Thanks everyone.  It was an absolute blast and I love watching the kids have such a great time.  The teachers idea was absolutely brilliant.  

The dino's are what I started scrolling, making them for my grand-daughter and you could say they're the cornerstone of the Iggy empire now as I broadened my puzzle making to everything you guys see me cutting today.

The patterns for the dino's can be found in this book, I don't have permission to sell those.  Definitely my best investment as I sell quite a few of them at every event.

https://www.amazon.com/Making-Wooden-Dinosaur-Toys-Puzzles/dp/1565238907/ref=pd_sbs_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1565238907&pd_rd_r=DRN4W6NYMH64G6PSY4CX&pd_rd_w=c5tkE&pd_rd_wg=OzFBj&psc=1&refRID=DRN4W6NYMH64G6PSY4CX

Edited May 5, 2017 by Iguanadon

[hawkeye10]

2 hours ago, Iguanadon said:

Thanks everyone.  It was an absolute blast and I love watching the kids have such a great time.  The teachers idea was absolutely brilliant.  

The dino's are what I started scrolling, making them for my grand-daughter and you could say they're the cornerstone of the Iggy empire now as I broadened my puzzle making to everything you guys see me cutting today.

The patterns for the dino's can be found in this book, I don't have permission to sell those.  Definitely my best investment as I sell quite a few of them at every event.

https://www.amazon.com/Making-Wooden-Dinosaur-Toys-Puzzles/dp/1565238907/ref=pd_sbs_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1565238907&pd_rd_r=DRN4W6NYMH64G6PSY4CX&pd_rd_w=c5tkE&pd_rd_wg=OzFBj&psc=1&refRID=DRN4W6NYMH64G6PSY4CX

That is a lot of patterns for $13.65. 

[Denny Knappen]

What a fantastic idea, combining your talent with education.  The kids faces says it all.

[heppnerguy]

it is really great when you can share your talents with the kids and especially in the class rooms. sure makes the puzzles  have more value then you even thought they would when you started making them.. I love this idea..

 

Dick

heppneriguy

[MTCowpoke22]

That's awesome. It's so much fun to do things like that, especially when a bunch of kids have fun with it!

[Sycamore67]

The book is by Judy Peterson and has IMHO the best puzzles.

She has several books of puzzles and all are great.

[amazingkevin]

19 hours ago, Iguanadon said:

Thanks everyone.  It was an absolute blast and I love watching the kids have such a great time.  The teachers idea was absolutely brilliant.  

The dino's are what I started scrolling, making them for my grand-daughter and you could say they're the cornerstone of the Iggy empire now as I broadened my puzzle making to everything you guys see me cutting today.

The patterns for the dino's can be found in this book, I don't have permission to sell those.  Definitely my best investment as I sell quite a few of them at every event.

https://www.amazon.com/Making-Wooden-Dinosaur-Toys-Puzzles/dp/1565238907/ref=pd_sbs_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1565238907&pd_rd_r=DRN4W6NYMH64G6PSY4CX&pd_rd_w=c5tkE&pd_rd_wg=OzFBj&psc=1&refRID=DRN4W6NYMH64G6PSY4CX

Never a dull moment when iggys around!