Prehistoric Preschool Gives Johnston Children An Inventive Blast from the Past

Jessica Miller is making dinosaurs seem delicious for Johnston-area preschoolers.

Miller, a Johnston pre-school teacher, is currently teaching the second of three short-term summer camps, each one attuned to a different topic. Last week, the students did a study of Laura Numeroff, author of “If you Give a Mouse a Cookie.” The class is taught at in Johnston.

This week, Miller's class of 4- and 5-year-olds is delving into dinosaurs. Next week, they’ll be plumbing the ocean depths, discussing sea creatures. Miller was able to choose the subject of each four-day camp, and she said she picked dinosaurs and the oceans as the subject because of their popularity with the students.

Miller hopes that the activities she fosters will help prepare students for school.

“The biggest thing we want for our kids is that we want them to be ready ... to enter the elementary building with some confidence, and have social skills they need to go on,” Miller said. “My goal, as long as kids are in my classroom, and they’re confident, and they’re happy and they’re growing, that’s what I want.”

The students explored fossils by making imprints into Play-Doh, and recited aloud the meanings of difficult vocabulary words such as “omnivore,” “herbivore” and “extinct.” They also had the chance to make dinosaur eggs, into which they placed tasty gummy-bear dinosaurs inside the Jell-o mold for flavor.