Bones and Stones

For Thanksgiving this year, we traveled to visit my dad's family in Pittsburgh, PA. In contrast to our very rustic Thanksgiving last year, we stayed in a hotel with my parents, my brother, and his girlfriend, and we ate our meal in the comfort of my aunt and uncle's home, driving to my grandparent's house for dessert. We had a wonderful time visiting family, many of whom the kids have not seen in a couple of years.

On Saturday, we decided to enjoy Pittsburgh a bit, so we headed across the city to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. What a wonderful museum! I knew they had a great dinosaur exhibit, but I never expected the kids to get so excited about the gems and minerals exhibit. All three kids were completely enthralled with the beautiful rocks and crystals.

Hannah thought they were beautiful and suggested that maybe she would rather be a geologist than an entomologist when she grows up. When we asked Becca about her favorite part of the museum later, she told us, "The rocks. They were pretty and shiny and sparkly and glowy in the dark..." She was adorable!

As I expected, the kids loved the dinosaur exhibit as well. The display had full skeletons of all of the dinosaurs most kids would readily recognize - apatosaurus, diplodocus, triceratops, stegosaurus, and of course, tyrannosaurus rex.

The museum also had many lesser known dinosaurs and another gallery dedicated to Ice Age animals, like mammoths and mastodons.

After viewing all of the wonderful skeletons, we arrived at a section geared entirely towards kids - "Bonehunter's Quarry." Many skeleton replicas lay buried in a waxy clay-like substance. Children first donned a pair of safety goggles and then used a chisel and a paintbrush to carefully excavate the bones. All three kids loved this part - especially Hannah! They definitely learned that uncovering dinosaur bones is a delicate and difficult job, requiring a lot of patience.

We spent the majority of our time in these two sections, but the museum had many more wonderful displays - North American and African animals, birds, Native Americans, Egypt, life in the Polar regions. We did walk through most of the exhibits, but by the end, the kids were tired and ready for lunch. We all had a great time and learned quite a bit, and I think if we go back, we will start on the top floor and work our way down so we can spend more time in some of the displays we missed or rushed through this time.

After a nice lunch, we returned to the hotel for a lazy afternoon. Becca took a nap while Hannah and Ben played with Grandma and PopPop in their hotel room. Well, they played for a little while until they both succumbed to their sleepiness and took a nice long nap on my parents' bed.


Aren't they sweet?

I love museums, and I think I will use this one as a starting point for a long unit on dinosaurs. I have a great book full of dinosaur-themed activities for Ben, and I just finished reading him Dinosaurs Before Dark last month. Now I just need find a way to work some geology into the unit, as well!