My son would be happy if my blog’s name was Only Time For Dinosaur Crafts as long as I did a few garbage trucks as well. We actually did this craft a while ago but I had just done a dinosaur craft so I saved it for later. I am glad I did we are puddles of sweat here on the west coast and long crafts just aren’t happening. However tomorrow I will have a super fun hot weather activity( experiment) for you.
- Gather your materials. You will need three large pieces of white paper, a marker, a googly eye, a paint roller , sponge or large brush, green paint, scissors and glue.
- Start by tracing your child’s hand, I only trace it once, then cut and trace that one original. Getting one good tracing takes luck with a 2 year old so I don’t push it.
- On the other paper draw a dinosaur, as you can see from mine no talent is required. As long as your child knows it’s not an alligator you are good, no need for perfection!
- Start painting both papers. We used the roller, and our hands. Let dry.
- Cut dinosaur and the hands out.
- Glue the dinosaur on the remaining piece of paper.
- Glue on the eye.
- Glue the cut out hands on to the back of the dinosaur.
* if you are using thin paper they may roll, simply roll them back the other direction and they will stay pretty straight.
Let dry.
Tadpole Rex by Kurt Cyrus is one of those books that I wonder why I’ve never read before. It’s so good! It could be used in a dinosaur unit to talk about how large the dinosaurs was , it’s illustrations show the size difference between a frog and a dinosaur beautifully from the frogs perspective, it could be used to teach about the frog life cycle as well. What I loved though was the rhyme and rhythm the book had, it was almost musical and in a book about frogs and dinosaurs that is awesome!
I Am an Ankylosaurus by Karen Wallace tells the story of an ankylosaurus and how she lays her eggs, protects them with her armor and tail, eats leaves and fights off a tyrannosaurus rex. It’s not a bad book and dinosaur lovers will still like it, my son did but I was sorta left with the question “So what?” I didn’t care about this dinosaur , there was nothing that made me feel like I should. Like I said my 2 year old liked it but didn’t ask to read it again.
Karen says
Delighted to report my son loved this craft – even the painting bit!!
The Activity Mom says
This is so cute. I love how you have your son using so many different techniques to paint and give him so many opportunities to use glue! It is a nice reminder for me to not be afraid of the mess and get out these materials for my son! Thanks!
Allie says
Karen- Yay I am really excited for you , I love that you kept trying and found something he'd get into!
Activity Mom – I love that you recognize that. I try hard to keep his experiences diverse despite the toddler tendency to only want to do the same thing over and over. As far as mess goes, it's all washable , but I admit when I am in a crappy mood I stick to easy clean ups so we both enjoy project time.
Becky @ Our Sweet Peas says
Thanks my boys will LOVE this! We also did the "o" for owl this week and the paper plate tiger. Thanks for all of the inspiration. The boys and my niece are loving all this fun.
Teri says
I love the tongue-mouth actions in step #6 😉 Too, too cute!
Beverly says
Noah will love to do this one, so cute!
The Harris Family says
Thanks for this idea. We have been doing a dinosaurs theme over the last two weeks and used two of your other projects already. I think we are going to do this one next. We really enjoy all of your fun projects…they are the perfect skill level for my kids.
Clemencia says
I love your blog, thanks for sharing such awesome ideas. I have an award for you here…http://storytime-storytime.blogspot.com/2009/07/honest-scrap-award-for-me.html
MaryAnne says
Very cute dinosaur!
Preschool Playbook says
Dinosaurs NEVER go out of style!
Rebecca says
Dinosaurs are a huge hit with us, will have to try this. thanks!