Dinosaurs are a very popular topic of interest in earl childhood education and care. If your baby is interested in dinosaurs this blog post is full of fun and creative ideas...
Dinosaur Dig- print some dinosaur skeletons out and place them beneath a heap of sand. Allow the children to slowly dig the pictures out using a paintbrush to slowly move the sand around, pretending to be a Paleontologist! When they locate one its a very exciting moment and you can discuss what type of dinosaur they found, what its features are, whether it is a carnivore or a herbivore and what Mesozoic Era into it is from.. the Triassic, Jurassic or Cretaceous.
2. Dinosaur Fizzy eggs- make a trip to the two dollar shop and get yourself a set of miniature dinosaurs. Use these to place into the fizzy dinosaur eggs and watch the kids get so excited when they begin to bubble, fizz and hiss, disappearing and revealing a cute little dinosaur inside! Again use this opportunity to discuss the different dinosaurs and their features. Click on the link below for ore details on how to make these fizzy dinosaur eggs...
3. Dinosaur Stomp! Using dinosaur figurines dip their feet in paint and look at the dinosaur foot print they create. Notice the difference between the carnivore feet and herbivore foot prints. Discuss why they might be different...
4. Dinosaur Swamp- Using water, green food colouring, water beads and flour you can create a murky swamp like texture which the dinosaurs would love to cool down in on a hot summers day. A fun and exiting sensory experience for kids who love to get dirty and have some sensory filled fun!
5. For our preschoolers we love introducing school readiness activities in our play experiences. Using Lego pieces as a form of measurement they joined them together and measured how big each dinosaur was. Recording these in a graph would also be a great idea to introduce children to data analysis and graph entries.
6. Dinosaur Sorting- Helping to improve fine motor skills and control the children can use giant tongs to move each small dinosaur around into their allocated plates. Learning to categorise and classify helps develop children memory recall skills and much more!
7. Fluffy Dinosaur Slime- Slime is such a wonderful sensory experience which allows the children to also create imprints of the dinosaurs and create their own fossils over and over. Slime is a great way for children to develop all their senses simultaneously. When several senses are stimulated at once, children build their creativity and learning through exploration. Click on the link below for the fluffy slime recipe..
Just remember, through these play opportunities the children's connections with you and their peers are what is most important. Use these play ideas as a medium to connect with your child, laugh and play with them. The possibilities are endless, go on a dinosaur hunt in your home, research dinosaurs together and find what his/her favourite kinds of dinosaurs are and their features, discuss the different dinosaur habitats with them, etc.