DINOSAURS!!!

You can tell which themes I really love because I put those in all caps.  I don't know any little kids who think dinosaurs aren't cool. Well one, but he was just trying really hard to act cool and grown-up in front of his friends. Pshaw!

Edwina, the Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct by Mo Willems. I use this book to talk about what extinct mean.  Sometimes I think the kids just don't get it. Maybe they just don't like it as much as I do. Reginald von Hoobie-Doobie is hell bent on explaining to everyone that Edwina should be extinct. No one listens. Finally she does, and she is shocked, but doesn't care.  Reginald is finally happy just to have someone listen to him.

When Dinosaurs Came with Everything by Elise Broach. The title says it all. In this story, all of a sudden, one day dinosaurs came with everything. A haircut at the barber's, a check-up at the dentist, even a dozen doughnuts. The boy's mom is totally freaked out by it all, but eventually she finds a use for the dinosaurs and they become part of the family.  I love this book, but it is a little long, so I try to reserve it for my elementary aged kids.

Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp by Carol Diggory Shields. All the dinosaurs are gathering for a huge party! The story details out all the dinos getting ready for and gathering at the party. The book definitely has a certain cadence to it, and the kids love to point out that it rhymes - it's like once they get it, they have to tell you EVERY TIME. 

Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs by Byron Barton. A nice, short book that just goes over some basics about dinosaurs along with the names of them.  It's almost like an opposite book of dinosaurs.

How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You? by Jane Yolen. All the books in this series are really cute. They all have the same basic formula of asking, do dinosaurs do this and that? And of course the answer is no. The second half of the book is all the things dinosaurs do.

Other good books include:

Trouble at the Dinosaur Cafe by Brian Moses.

Vacation's Over! Return of the Dinosaurs by Joe Kukla. Ugh.  This is SO cute.  Dinosaurs never went extinct! They just went on vacation, and now they're back. 

Why the Banana Split by Rick Walton.  I want to use this one SO badly.  I just don't think it will go over well because the whole book is just a bunch of idioms illustrated.  Still - it *does* have something to do with dinosaurs.

Tea Rex by Molly Idle.

For this theme I don't really have a fingerplay that I do. We'll sing Dem Bones, but my coworkers reworked the words to the chorus and that's the version we do.

Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones, 

dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones, 

dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones, 

diggin' up dinosaur bones.

Then we pretty much sing it as normal.