Fossils Tell of Earth's Changes

Second grade has kicked off a new expedition that helps us understand how fossils tell of Earth's changes over time. In this expedition, students are taking on the role of readers, writers, and paleontologists. In order to help us better understand the role of a paleontologist, students have been reading a text titled Stone Girl, Bone Girl. This text tells the story of a famous paleontologist, Mary Anning, who discovered one of the most important fossils to date. We also made the connection that the popular rhyme/poem "She sells seashells..." was written about Mary Anning!

To understand the role of a paleontologist even further our students visited Dinosaur Ridge for fieldwork. During this fieldwork, our students learned about the different dinosaurs that roamed in Colorado. Our students were shocked to learn that Colorado used to have a beach that dinosaurs and alligators inhabited. The students also took on the role of a paleontologist to dig for dinosaur fossils and bones. In the future, the students will be reading informational text and writing narratives about discovering fossils.