Stones ‘n’ Bones & the Enormous Egg
By Mary Chamberlain
What happens when an entire elementary school reads the same book, The Enormous Egg, and asks Fremont County Stones and Bones to come in to help with the family night to celebrate the reading? A two-hour evening full of paleontology learning!
At the end of January, Penrose Elementary School in Penrose, CO did their annual “One School, One Book” event, after reading The Enormous Egg, by Oliver Butterworth. Stones and Bones was invited to participate by providing centers that were science based. Activities included Fossil Bingo, Fossil Rubbings, Talk with a Paleontologist, and Compare Dinosaur Bone Cell Structure to Tree Cell Structure. Almost 150 students and parents participated in the activities, with some kids only being 4 years old! Waves of kids with their parents and grandparents experiencing the science.
Christina Taylor describing a dinosaur bone
Dorothy Cool helping with fossil rubbings
Millie Wintz framing a student’s fossil rubbing
Lynzee Wellborn with her Dad, Wylie, playing Fossil Bingo
Millie Wintz and Dorothy Cool’s fossil rubbing was a favorite. Choices included a trilobite as well as others. After the rubbing was done, our new fossil friends encased the rubbing in a hand-cut oval paper frame ready for hanging on the wall.
Fossil Bingo with Mary Chamberlain was enjoyed by the youngest to the oldest. Mini-future paleontologists loved looking closely at the real fossils and then matching them up with the ones on paper. Parents, as well as kids were amazed at how quickly they learned to look for the differences.
Penrose Elementary staff provided a variety of other stations for the night including Egg Match, Puppets, Play-doh, Musical Dino Walk, as well as others.
A welcoming staff, so many family units learning together, polite and caring made this paleontology experience a meaningful, pleasurable time for Stones and Bones as well as the school community.
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