Good morning, friends! This is Katie from
the Perot Museum of Nature and Science. And
I'm here again with you from my backyard. And this week science topic is all about
paleontology. Do of you know what
paleontology is? Or what a paleontologist does?
Well, a paleontologists studies fossils. Not
just dinosaur fossils for all sorts of
animals and plants to learn what the Earth was like a long time ago. And
this week, Gerald and I are just going to be having some fun with dinosaurs and
we're gonna start by getting a little
bit of a workout and do some Dino yoga.
So, go grab a towel, or a mat and let's get started. Alright, our first pose it's gonna be a dino egg and
we're gonna spread our knees and come on
down. Oh, and just stretch your back out.
Get a nice stretch. You can put your arms
wherever you'd like.
Gerald's arms are holding his watering
can because that's all they can do, but
he's doing a great job! All right, our
next pose. We're gonna come on up to our
hands and our knees and we're gonna be a
walking dinosaur this time. Let's take
out and stretch out an arm and a leg.
Good job, Gerald! And let's switch sides.
Really good work, Gerald! All right, and
one more on our hands and knees. Let's
stretch our back up and be a Stegosaurus. Let's pretend we've got those big
Stegosaurus plates going up our back.
Good work! Gerald, are you working up a
sweat? All right, let's do a few more. For
our next pose, we're gonna stand up. We're gonna spread our arms wide.
We're gonna be a
pterodactyl. Now is the pterodactyl a
dinosaur?
Not really, but it's okay. We can still have some fun with it.
I want you to lean forward. Put out one
of your legs and balance.
Pretend you're flying. Good job. And great
job, Gerald! And now for our last post, take our feet
a little bit further apart. Bend our
knees, and give me some t-rex arms. You
can always give me a t-rex roar if you'd like. Good work! Alright, Gerald! Was that fun?
Yes it was! Now, let's go read my favorite
dinosaur book! So, Gerald -- after that hard
work out, I want to read to you from my
favorite dinosaur book. And it's all
about a dinosaur who didn't know she was
extinct. Do you know what extinct means?
Well, it means that there none of you
left.
Just like dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are
extinct because they aren't around
anymore, are they? But let's read a story
about one who didn't know that. And this
book is called Edwina: the Dinosaur Who
Didn't Know She was Extinct, by Mo
Willems.
Everyone in town knew Edwina.
She was the dinosaur who played with the
neighborhood kids. She was a dinosaur who
did favors for anyone who asked.
Edwina helped little old ladies cross
the street and she baked chocolate chip
cookies for everyone. Everyone loved Edwina except Reginald von who be do be.
Reginald knew just about everything
about just about everything. He'd like to
give reports in class about all the
things he knew. Today he was going to
talk about things that are extinct.
Specifically dinosaurs. As soon as
Reginald started, Beth McPhee der asked
"what about Edwina? She's a dinosaur." And
Tommy Bridger said, "yeah Edwina can't be
extinct. She baked chocolate chip cookies
for us." and then Miss Mink added, "maybe
Edwina is baking chocolate chip cookies
right now." Before he knew, it everyone
except Reginald was outside eating
cookies. No one listens to me with that
dinosaur around, thought Reginald. Well
tomorrow I'll prove to the whole town
that dinosaurs really are extinct and
poof, Edwina will disappear. The next
morning,
Reginald handed out flyers that made
excellent arguments about how extinct
dinosaurs are. They also made excellent
hats. When flyers didn't work, Reginald
tried protesting. When protesting didn't
work, he tried everything he could think
of. But no one listened.
Finally, Reginald broke down and cried.
Boo hoo! He sobbed. Why won't anyone listen
to me? I'll listen to you, said a voice
from behind him. It was Edwina.
Reginald took Edwina to his classroom.
Inside, Edwina listened as Reginald told
her the truth about dinosaurs.
He was persuasive, he was expressive, he
was loud.
He was very convincing. Edwina was shocked!
When he was done,
Reginald felt fantastic. No one had ever
listened to him so well for so long.
Everything Reginald had said made sense.
There was no doubt about it in Edwina's
mind. She knew she was extinct. She just
didn't care. And by then, neither did
Reginald von who bee do bee. And there's
Edwina baking Reginald some cookies.The
end. Gerald, I hope you enjoyed our story
and I'll see all of our friends back
here next week! Goodbye!
