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No Time For Flash Cards

preschool activities, kids crafts, and books.

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Clothespin Stegosaurus

Now that my son is older ( ripe old age of 2) I ask him what he wants to do for art. Consider this your warning for many dinosaurs, things with wheels, and other stereotypical little boy things. It doesn’t seem to matter how many flowers we point out on our walks he finds the diggers and motorcycles zooming past a thousand times more interesting. This craft was thought up spur of the moment but turned out wonderfully, the clothespins add a dynamic activity to the static paper dinosaur.

Gather your materials. You will need a cereal box, some paint, a marker, some clothespins, a googly eye and scissors.

Start by drawing a simple dino shape on the cut open cereal box with your marker.If you are sneaking in a color mixing lesson like I am put 2 colors of paint on a plate and let your child discover the magic of blending the two colors.

Paint the dinosaur. We used a dish scrubber but any paint brush will do. Let dry.

Using the same dish you mixed the colors in roll your clothespins in the paint to color them. Try not to get too much on them , or they will be stuck together and won’t open.Glue the eye on the dry dino.

 

Cut the dino out.

 

Add your clothes pins

Have fun counting and pinching the clothes pins onto the dinosaur, the pinching is great fine motor practice for your little ones too!

Dinosaur Books


Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs by Byron Barton has always been a favorite of mine for introducing dinosaurs to young kids. It’s very basic, very bright and has the fundamental facts about dinosaurs without loading toddlers down with too many facts to sort through. The illustrations are bright, fun and descriptive on their own and will keep even the most fidgety 3 year old entertained.

Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs! by Sandra Boyntonis a cute little book about opposites with dinosaurs as it’s characters. This is a good book for little people who love dinosaurs but aren’t really ready to dive into facts about dinosaurs yet. The melodic rhyming text and adorable pictures appeals to younger toddlers, and on the page where the dinosaurs are called bad for painting on their friends made both me and my son laugh .

Good Night, Dinosaurs by Judy Sierra is a tongue twister and I love it! I have a hard time pronouncing dinosaur names, but the cute little rhymes she writes to go with each really help. The book is simple, parent dinosaurs tucking in and getting their little dinosaurs ready to fall asleep. Your child will love the catchy “Good Night Dinosaurs, Sleep Tight Dinosaurs, Good Night Dinosaurs, Goodnight!” I know I did.
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44 Comments

  3. I love this one!! I have it starred in our reader to try someday. I also want to get “Danny and the Dinosaur” one of these days. I know I loved it when I was little but haven’t read it in at least 25 years.

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  6. We’re fine with lots of dino crafts! My son is turning 2 this week so we’re right there with you. My 3 year old is fascinated with bones/fossils; if you could work that in we’d be so excited!

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  9. Thanks for the toddler boy idea! We’ll dig into that one next week! The Sandra Boynton dinosaur book is a fave at our house – almost as popular as the “How Does a Dinosaur…” series. Your site rocks – You’re in my blogroll under Website I Love!

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  12. This is such a great boy activity! I’ve been trying to think of something boyish, especially since my son is 3 and my daughter is 2, and we always seem to end up playing with the tea set or cooking or something girly.

    The books you listed are great! Another cute one I just heard about is called “Gorgonzola: A Very Stinkysaurus” by Margie Palatini. I’m anxious to go check it out at the library – sounds like it’s perfect for my little guy!

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  19. I’ll be trying this out soon – another of yours was a great hit today (jelly fish). I learned a valuable lesson afterwards though when my ds asked to make a fish – I thought we’d decorate it with bits of crape paper which we’d used strips of on the jelly fish – silly me cut out the fish first, too small and frustrating for ds! I see you don’t tend to cut your creations until the decorating is done; lesson learned.

    Thanks again for such a great collection of fun. btw searched your site earlier for a creation using clothes pins but I called them pegs; so no hits 🙂

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    • Yes – I learned that lesson while teaching, 10 frustrated 2.5 year olds when I had things pre-cut!

      Thanks for reminding me that people call them pegs! I will add that to my to do list, adding clothes peg as a tag for these activities!

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  22. We did a clothespin stegosaurus the other day. I then made the mistake of giving Maggie directions to put a dirty towel in the washer and bring me the clothespins at the same time, and our poor stegosaurus ended up in the washer, lol.

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