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.
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
Dinosaur Books
Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs
Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs! 
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.
sandy says
I love it! My boys were the same way. It’s refreshing to have girls that are the opposite now. A nice change:0)
Brenda says
Well, I have a beautiful little daughter who is completely obsessed with dinosaurs right now! 🙂 This project will be a hit with her!!!
Infant Bibliophile says
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.
Allie says
Brenda- I was just like your daughter, I loved dinosaurs. I am gla dyou guys like this one, I know it was a big hit around here !
Anonymous says
My son loves dinosaurs too. He is so proud to show his dino off to his Dad when he gets home!
Andrea says
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!
Allie says
Andrea – another great book is “Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones” by Byron Barton it goes into fossils and palentology in a very very basic way!
Tanya says
My 2 yr daughter’s new love is dinos, esp. purple ones on TV that sing. Groan! She’ll love the clothespins on this one.
Carebear says
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!
Jenny says
That’s a cute idea! My daughter wouldn’t go for the dinosaur theme though 🙂
Allie says
Tanya- I have been there, my son was very very fond of Barney for far too long. He’s moved on thank goodness !
Melissa says
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!
Allie says
Ohhh I am going to check out that book!
Annette says
Great activity! Can you please tell me about the child-friendly sponge that he used to paint?
Thanks!
Jolene says
This is an awesome activity! Love that cute tube of crayola paint! Might I ask where it came from? LOL
Allie says
Annette- I got that inb the cleaning aisle with all the other dish scrubbers at Wal-mart.
The crayola paint came from Target 🙂
Preschool Playbook says
This is a great dinosaur. I might just add him to our Dinosaur Camp, if that’s okay. Thanks.
BranFlakes says
I Love that you used clothespins. It’s so cute.
Tasha says
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 🙂
admin says
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!
Lindsay says
This is so cute! I can’t wait to try it with my preschoolers!
jennyerin says
Excellent! Why just today I was asking my almost 4yr old what kind of project he wanted to do and he said “a dinosaur project!” Now I have a great plan for tomorrow’s holiday at home.
Susie says
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.
sharla says
I saw this on a preschool website years ago. I use it for number recognition. 🙂 The children put the number of clothespins on that match the number written on the dinosaur:)
admin says
That’s such a cute idea.