I think this was one of the most interesting dinosaurs we have learned about to date… there is so much known and so much UNKNOWN about this creature – the largest flying animal EVER. Seriously, the Quetzalcoatlus (KWET-zah-koh-AT-lus) was the size of a plane!!! There is much discussion about how this massive creature would fly, take off, eat… some figure it never flew, others that it could fly for weeks on end. Even the actual weight of this amazing winged lizard is debated. So lets start with what we DO know about it…

The Quetzalcoatlus was around during the Cretaceous period and was one of the last flying dinosaurs or Pterasaurs. It had a long neck and a toothless beak. It was without feathers and instead had tiny hairs on its body. It was potentially cold blooded. The wings of this beast tied into its fourth finger and it most likely walked on 4 legs. It was definitely a carnivore, though what particular meat it ate (carcasses like a vulture, skimming fish, or attacking land animals) is unknown. They were massive and amazing and as Emanuel says with great joy – AS BIG AS AN AIRPLANE – WOW!!!

Now for the videos. Our first one was a catching song. Everyone boogied along to the music while we enjoyed the images.

You have to go down the list on the site of our second video. But dsc.discovery.com has some great educational videos about various dinosaurs at THIS link. We are going to go down the list and see what other videos they have on our dinosaurs of choice. Triceratops was the first video! 

And now the links… We started with this article form site HERE. Emanuel loved the picture at the top, though we did gloss over the “seeing” of one in current times. Then there is the dino fact file HERE that had a nice little blurb about our massive flyer. EnchantedLearning had a great page to check out HERE, though their Tyrell Museum link is a dead one. About.com had 10 facts to know about the Quetzalcoatlus HERE that was rather helpful. The Melbourne Museum was helpful once again HERE. Kidsdinos.com has a nice write up and map HERE. TheDinosaurs.org has a great page about this dinosaur HERE. Now don’t forget about our colouring pages HERE. 

So, hopefully these links and videos help you and your dinosaur lover learn more about the biggest flying animal EVER!! We really enjoyed learning about him! 

Sleepy but learning!

October 12-13

And so our week, that started so oddly with a trip to an Urgent Care facility ended rather quietly… We took a light day with school as the kids simply were not focused, but I was determined to finish our basics. In what is now our dinosaur pattern, today was a drawing day and draw Emanuel did. First we worked out the name of the dinosaurs we have covered to date!

1. Coelophysis
2. Xiaosaurus
3. Nodosaurus
4. Triceratops
5. Deinoychus
6. Quetzalcoatlus
7. Tyrannosaurus
8. Sauroposeidon

So far we have actually gone 50/50 on our herbivores and carnivores and I DO promise that each of these dinosaurs WILL end up on the blog. I am double posting for a while just to get them up and out. I have linked everything we looked at and included our videos of choice. So, hopefully they will come in handy for other people! 

Drawing those herbivores

Very creative

We have finished our Halloween book… it covered the origins of a lot of the things we do and ways we celebrate the season. Really a great read though I am not sure the boys took too much from it. It is called The Story of Halloween by Carol Greene. 

Gavin finally caught a break and was able to do his SCARY Jack-o-lantern (whose history we traced back to Ireland and a bad man name Jack) off of our absolutely favourite art instruction site Art For Kids. You can find them HERE. Remember to join their Facebook site! 

Pumpkin patch

We have continued our work on the poem of the week. I think ALL of the boys will be ready to debut it on Monday! So watch for the video. Emanuel was absolutely excited to get a chance to learn it with the twins. 

Gavin wrote HIS spelling test again, and this week was a straight across 100%!!!

PROUD!

Saturday was a full day – we had not only our kids and Nana and Baba but ALSO the cousins (Gabriella and Zachary). They got here late Friday night when the kids were already in bed so in the morning it was happiness overload… inside, outside, up in trees… noise and laughter and tons of fun going on!

TREES

So Ken and I snuck out (sanctioned by Nana and Baba of course)… our first time out just the TWO of us in AGES. A definite necessary recharge! We drove a bit, walked through Jo-Ann’s a bit AND spent quality time just talking, holding hands and being together. I have missed our time together, when we left Canada we left behind a rather amazing network of friends and family who were often willing to take over the supervising of the minions. 

See the snood!

It was nice to not have to be somewhere at some time and still have the kids in the middle of a playdate! A movie and popcorn later and the day was over and the kids in bed. A success! AND Trinity’s owey is looking GREAT! YAY!

Bitty Baby