Dino dig at library

Photo

Neighbors | Elise McKeown Skolnick.Lori Toporcer (right) helped her daughter, Maci, make a dinosaur skeleton at the Dino-mite Dinosaurs program at the Austintown Library.

Photo

Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Children played the dino pokey at the Dino-mite Dinosaurs program at the Austintown library July 11.

Photo

Neighbors | Elise McKeown Skolnick.Jordan Bond looked for dinosaur fossils at the Austintown library Dino-mite Dinosaurs program July 11.

Photo

Neighbors | Elise McKeown Skolnick.Judah Leonard (left) and Jeremiah Leonard enjoyed using temporary tattoos at the Austintown library Dino-mite Dinosaurs program.

Photo

Neighbors | Elise McKeown Skolnick.Lara Bodo made dinosaur fossils using playdoh at the Austintown library's Dino-mite Dinosaur program July 11..

By ELISE McKEOWN SKOLNICK

neighbors@vindy.com

Boys and girls – many wearing shirts with dinosaurs on them – came to the library to learn more about the extinct creatures. Dino-mite Dinosaurs, offered July 11 at the Austintown library, covered a variety of dinosaur facts, including names and what they ate.

Librarian Nikki Puhalla asked the children what their favorite dinosaur was and they shouted out baby, t-rex, pterodactyl, and pteranodon. They discussed what dinosaurs ate when they were living on Earth. Puhalla explained some were carnivores and others were herbivores. She showed them pictures of dinosaurs, they sang dino-themed songs, and played the dino pokey, a version of the Hokey Pokey.

The program also included digging for fossils - pictures of dinosaur bones buried in plastic pools, making fossils with playdoh, a craft project and temporary dinosaur tattoos.

Jordan Bond of Boardman said his favorite dinosaur is tyrannosaurus rex.

“Because I used to watch a show about t-rexes,” Bond said. He also said that the dinosaur program is fun.

“The programs they’re doing this year are wonderful,” Bond’s mother, Jodi, said. “And it’s helped him because he enjoys reading. They give little rewards, like ice cream, and it makes him want to read.”

Maci Toporcer of Canfield said she attended the program to learn more about dinosaurs. She did – she learned the names of some and what they eat. Like Bond, tyrannosaurus rex is her favorite.

Toporcer glued cotton swabs to a pre-printed picture of a dinosaur to make a skeleton of one.

The program offered a lot, Toporcer’s mother, Lori, said.

“They have a lot of nice activities, a lot of fun things for the kids to do,” she said.