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Earth History, Fossils, and Layers in the Earth
Thomas Jefferson Elementary
School, Academic Year 2009-2010
Grade K |
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Dr. DeLeo came into our classroom
and told us about a special program for the entire school.
He called it “Timeline: Planet Earth!” We knew that
something was going on because there was a big giant
painting by our classroom. He told us about some of the things going on in other classes:
for example, first graders were studying rocks, and
third graders were studying magnets. There was even
a weather station on the roof of the school. |
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Dr. DeLeo told us about the history
of the Earth, and how scientists know so much about
the Earth’s past. We already knew that there were
dinosaurs and other animals on the Earth a long time
ago that are no longer around today. Many of us even
knew what the word “extinct” means. It means
that those plants or animals no longer live today –
they all died. The dinosaurs disappeared – went
extinct - a long time ago, about 65 million years ago.
The beginning of the painting shows the Earth when it
was forming, almost five billion years ago. The other
end of the painting shows dinosaurs and more modern
plants and animals.
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Dr. DeLeo used a computer and a projector in our classroom, and he even showed movies! Mr. Craven helped him explain how we could see our school from above. We asked a lot of questions!
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| Dr. DeLeo told
us that we could tell a lot about what happened in the
past by digging underground. We learned that the Earth’s
surface is made of layers of dirt. The deepest layers
are the oldest because they were laid down first. This
is just like making a sand bottle using layers of colored
sand. The bottom layer goes in first. We knew that –
we’re really smart!! So, if you dig down deep into
the Earth, you are actually looking back in time. Often,
we don’t need to dig since nature sometimes carves
away the ground for us. You can often see the layers easily.
We find the remains of plants and animals (fossils) in
the ground. And the ones that lived a really long time
ago leave fossils really deep underground. |
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| When we came into the classroom, there were dinosaur models all around. We love dinosaurs! One of us was even reading a book about dinosaurs. |
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Dr. DeLeo set up special magnifying glasses in the room. They make things look real big when you look through them. Dr. DeLeo tried to scare us by looking at us through one of the magnifiers, but we don't scare that easily! We used the magnifiers to look at fossils that Dr. DeLeo brought. When plants and animals that lived a long time ago die, they sometimes become hard like rock. These are called fossils. Below are some pictures of us looking at fossils.
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| Dr. DeLeo showed us a fossil of an animal called a trilobite, and we all got to pet it. Trilobites no longer live today; they are extinct like the dinosaurs. |
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| If you click the play buttons on the pictures on the right, you will see videos of us looking at fossils. |
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| Dr. DeLeo took us out in the hallway so we could look at the Timeline painting. At one end of the painting, we see what the Earth was like a long time ago. As we move toward the other end of the painting, we get closer to what we see on the Earth today. |
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| At the end of his visit, Dr. DeLeo gave us placemats with pictures of animals. He also left us a big giant plastic container which we are going to use to make our own layers. Eventually, it will look like the picture on the far right. |
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We had lots of fun learning about the Earth and layers
in the Earth!
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I hope you have enjoyed this web presentation as much as we enjoyed sharing the actual learning experience with your son or daughter. Although we have endeavored to exclude photographs where permission has been denied, it is possible for errors to occur. If you would like us to remove a photograph of your son or daughter for any reason, please send me an e-mail message at lgd0@lehigh.edu or call me at 610-758-3413, and we will remove it promptly. Please note that we will never associate a child's full or last name with a photograph except in circumstances where special permission was explicitly provided. Thank you. Gary DeLeo. |
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