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Lighting A Jurassic Spark

Tribune photo by CANDACE C. MUNDY

At Independent Day School in Carrollwood, kindergarten students are studying dinosaurs through the school's intergrated team teaching program. Students Katia Wood, Hayden Wooldridge, Jack O'Leary and Dominic Bottini sing along with a dinosaur song.

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By COURTNEY CAIRNS PASTOR

cpastor@tampatrib.com

Published: November 5, 2008

CARROLLWOOD - A ratchet makes a grinding sound like stegosaurus plates scraping together.

The ghostly flexatone could be a pteranodon flying overhead.

And the vibra-slap, which echoes every time you smack it? It's the powerful Tyrannosaurus Rex stomping around

"He's huge," Michael LeBlanc told the kindergarten class at Independent Day School. "We have to hit the vibra-slap like he's walking."

Some of LeBlanc's music classes took a prehistoric turn recently as prekindergarten and kindergarten students studied rocks, fossils and dinosaurs.

In their classrooms, teachers introduced the children to the genre's vocabulary and offered hands-on activities, such as excavating faux fossils, cracking geodes and exploding volcanoes.

When they went to music class, the subject matter remained the same, but the approach got a dose of rhythm and sound.

LeBlanc, the fine arts division leader at Independent Day School, packed a half-hour class with songs, movement and percussion to enhance and reinforce what children had learned in their regular classroom.

Cooperation between classroom teachers and the "specials" - such as art, music and library - is common at the private Carrollwood school. Specials teachers adopt a class to get to know the teacher's curriculum, and they meet regularly to share ideas and discuss how to link the lessons.

"We're trying to find a way that fits that's logical," LeBlanc said.

Before Jessica Moore's kindergarten pupils began their month-long study of rocks and fossils, LeBlanc found himself brushing up on his geology terminology so he could lead songs about igneous and metamorphic rocks. If he stumbles, he doesn't worry. The children jump at the chance to correct their teacher, which also helps them externalize their lessons.

The students began by studying the three types of rocks found on the planet, the layers beneath the Earth's surface and how fossils form. Moore and the other teachers built a cave with aluminum foil stalactites and stalagmites, and sunk shells and toys into plaster so students could uncover "fossils."

"See that?" said 5-year-old Jordan Stanechewski, pointing at a shell that began to emerge from the plaster. "That's a fossil! Somebody pulled it out."

Jordan said she found a rock when she chipped away at the mold.

"We're learning about rocks and volcanoes because volcanoes are rocks - igneous rocks," she said.

In an adjacent room, Macy Selewach, 5, made a construction paper hard hat to wear when the class goes on a "dig" to find bones the teachers planted. She put a paper light on her hard hat like archaeologists would wear "because when they go in caves, they need lights and hats. When rocks fall down, they won't get hurt."

At snack time, the children ate "sedimentary sandwiches" or s'mores - learning that the layers of turkey, cheese and bread or chocolate, marshmallow and graham cracker are like layers found in sedimentary rocks.

They made oatmeal cookies to understand metamorphic rocks, which change from heat and pressure. Like that kind of rock, the eggs, oats and vanilla became something else with heat from the oven, Moore told them.

They practiced math skills by talking about size and weight of dinosaurs. They learned about writing sentences by completing the phrase "if the dinosaurs came back" with what they would do. "I wood (sic) hug it," one child wrote. "I woud (sic) pet him," another printed. "I wod (sic) run," a third said.

In music, LeBlanc preserved the lessons he wanted to convey, such as different types of singing and speaking voices, and rhythm and percussion practice. But he wrapped them in activities related to their dinosaur curriculum.

They read the book "Dinosaurumpus" together, and LeBlanc passed out percussion instruments representing different dinosaurs to each child. They played individually when their dinosaurs were introduced and together during the refrain.

"Shake, shake, shudder near the sludgy old swamp," LeBlanc read. The children sounded their instruments and practiced keeping a steady beat and cutting off the music at the same time.

"We try to get them to realize that these sounds go together with words," he said.

He reviewed four types of voices - speaking, singing, whispering and shouting - and quizzed the children on layers of the Earth, pointing to different spots on a paper plate Moore colored to resemble the planet's crust, mantle and core.

"Whisper what this is," he said, pointing to the middle.

"Core," the students rasped.

"Singing voice."

"Core," they trilled.

They act out dormant and active volcanoes to "O Volcano," set to the tune of "Frere Jacques."

"We need to make sure we're using our best, lightest singing voice," he said.

They flit across the room when he asks them to be soaring pteranodons, accompanied by LeBlanc tapping quickly on a drum. Then he slows down with deliberate thumps, and the children lumber like a big, slow brontosaurus.

"Children love to move like dinosaurs," LeBlanc said. "I just make them do it with a steady beat."

Reporter Courtney Cairns Pastor can be reached at (813) 865-1503 Keyword: Dinosaur for an audio slide show of LeBlanc's class.

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