Yup, a FEATHERED dinosaur! The dinosaur of the day is another Chinese one, and rather unique at that, called Beipiaosaurus. This potentially omnivorous dinosaur was found during the Cretaceous period. Dinosaurs.about.com describes it as follows: “long-clawed, pot-bellied, two-legged herbivorous theropods that seem to have been constructed from bits of other types of dinosaurs.” you can find this quote HERE. I have found most sites refer to it as an herbivore but there is some debate. 

We have partial skeletons of this dinosaur, but where they were found allowed for the impressions of the feathers or feather like portions of the dinosaur to survive in the form of impressions. Not much larger than a man this dinosaur was a hit with our fanatic just due to how we believe it looked as is really well illustrated HERE. We chose it from the list of I’m a Dinosaur videos on youTube so of course you have to watch the one below!

Our second video is a  tribute video with a great selection of images by various artists.

We did not have a multitude of links to share but we have a great image to colour HERE. Raresource has a page HERE on our Chinese dinosaur. EnchantedLearning has a fact sheet HERE. Jurassic Park Wikia has their information HERE. Age of Dinosaurs has a map and point form information HERE. And of course Wiki has their article on this fascinating dinosaur HERE.

Working together

October 24-25

Wednesday marks the point where we are FINALLY in the end stretch on costumes. I am so far behind from where I usually am! The twin bought theirs, we got the last of the supplies for Echo’s and the face paint for Trinity’s Choco-cat. Ken and I have opted not to dress up this year with our short time frame and really lack of budget. I hope to do so next year though! 

We spent much of our morning out on those errands so that definitely shortened our school day. BUT Zander had his spelling test today, 7/7! Well done!

100%!

Not to be outdone by her brother… work of art

Art for Kidssaved our day with their MUMMY instructions. The boys BOTH enjoy the steps and are absolutely willing to create whatever the next picture is. We often discuss what COULD be the next picture posted…

MUMMY

Thursday was a short day for me… I had a GIRLY DATE with Bree the mommy to be once again. She announced the day before that they are expecting a GIRL! Echo is going to have a godsister. I am so excited for them, I am going to save all of Echo’s outgrows AND start the gears moving in my head as to what I can make for them. Hair things, dollies, bits and bobs… fairy wings! Oh I am excited!!! We are in the world of boys down here having left all our little girls up in Canada! 

Anyway… we have started our Halloween colouring in earnest. I love a good print out and while the printer is limping without its colour cartridge we are still making do. Trinity especially enjoyed her Education.com print out of a haunted house! You can check out my Halloween folder on their site HEREof stuff from this year and the previous. 

Trinity’s work of art

We had ANOTHER 100% on a spelling test – this time Gavin and he had tricky words – TWO and TOO!!! I am so proud!!! 

Another perfect score

We have started our Halloween book and are doing a picture a chapter into the journals. This seems to be the best way to follow up with something with the boys. Low impact but they keep on working, thinking and creating. When we finish our Judy Moody book and go onto the next one, I think I will use another format… maybe a chapter by chapter picture book… add to it a list of the characters in each chapter and the main conflict or point. 

We covered a rather unique FEATHERED dinosaur today. The Beipiaosaurus… and surprisingly Gavin joined us! There is something rather interesting about a dinosaur that is feathered, with a potential omnivore lifestyle. Once I get  the previous dinosaurs posted this one will be up as well. My agreement with the big boys is that if they want to join in on the dinosaur time they ALSO have to do something productive in regards to this dinosaur. So Gavin drew a picture of it, recorded the dinosaur’s name and 3 facts he learned about it. Which Emanuel helped him come up with. 

I am still debating what path to take beyond math and reading and writing… With Emanuel to learn about Brazil I am thinking of seeing what sort of a lapbook or mini poster we could make as a family… but I want to expand our interest. THOUGH we have had some more pen pal letters! This time from our friends in the Yukon (including Coffee Crisp chocolate bars for me!! Though Ken took one to share with his friends).

Throw in some snow in passing and wow what a couple of days!!!