Dinosaurs

You open your eyes to tall trees, vines and streams that lead deep into a rich, wild green world. You hear the high pitched wail of unknown creatures. You are now entering the Jurassic period. 231 million years ago dinosaurs roamed over all continents and now they're in the classrooms of the school I work at (SO awesome). The past 3 days I've been helping to recreate some of these extinct beasts.

When I found out that dinosaurs were the topic we'd be covering I was so happy because well, what a compelling thing for children to learn about. I'd have painted my enthusiasm all over the topic back in my primary school years. To mark the occasion, I've been wearing my silver Velociraptor earrings; what better opportunity to have miniature dinosaurs hanging from your ears.The best thing about talking to children about dinosaurs is that they can't quite grasp that humans and dinosaurs didn't coexist and that any pictures of dinosaurs in books are not real photographs and I find that adorable. That and they just make up names of dinosaurs by adding absolutely anything to 'aurus'. I've had an absolutely brilliant 3 days working with the children and an enormously talented sculptor Philip Cox who has helped us to sculpt three, amazing beasts out of cardboard. Credit where credit's due, Philip's work is just incredible. He's got so much character, took time to get to know everyone and was so co-operative and friendly, with some funny stories from his career in cardboard. A really lovely chap. See his work here: http://www.philipcox.info/.

We made three dinosaurs of the genera Stegosaurus, Diplodocus and Triceratops. It was just fun and great to be able to do something practical. It has inspired me to get in touch with my creative side far more and I hope it does the same to you.

Stegosaurus

Diplodocus

Triceratops