Last week I shared a few things about some wonderful mothers in my life and also about how I came to be Emily’s mommy in the Mom Week Series. It was a bit emotional (and I’m completely out of Kleenex) so this week I’m back to sharing sillier, make-you-laugh things… like Fun School! I’m starting with today’s post on our week full of some great Dinosaur activities.
I’ve been having a total blast with our Fun School pre-school themes and activities. I thought that our week on the farm and bug week were my favorites, but now I definitely know our Dinosaurs themed week has moved into that spot. Not because of the dinosaur activities we did but because of how Emily’s creativity and imagination really came to life, and I should have some nice six-pack abs from all of the laughing I did (but I don’t).
I can’t say that Emily learned every dinosaur name and honestly I don’t know how she possibly could have because I could hardly pronounce quite a few of them (again, you teachers rock)! I did find a great dinosaur chart online and then forgot to print it out so we could use it, but regardless she ended up getting a few of them down like Triceratops, Stegosaurus, T-Rex, and (my favorite) Brontosaurus (or Apatosaurus, as I learned they are of the same family and are basically one and the same – see I am learning some stuff too).
Oddly, my husband was watching the movie Jurassic World one night (great movie by the way) and while I’m aware it isn’t really an appropriate movie for young kids, she was into it; and she sat through it calling out those specific dinosaurs as they came on-screen (and then we would laugh and yell “AHHHHHH, don’t eat me” and hide in the couch pillows every time T-Rex came along). She didn’t wake up during the night from nightmares either…I’m thinking she may end up like me and start enjoying horror movies at a young age for whatever reason. On a side note we also watched The Land Before Time and The Good Dinosaur so we had a little balance (and a few tears… are Emily and I the only ones who can’t get through The Good Dinosaur without crying???). Anyway, here’s what else we did during Dinosaur week:
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Dinosaur Egg Hatch (and HOW TO make)
This was a great sensory and outdoor activity, especially because we were having a summer-like heatwave which helped to keep things moving as quick as Emily’s attention span. Our dog, Kallie, also really enjoyed this one. The “eggs” are made of ice and when they “hatch” a baby dinosaur is “born”. To do this you only need a few things: medium sized rubber or latex balloons, a variety package of small, plastic dinosaurs (I bought them at a dollar store but they are similar to these), water and a freezer.
Carefully insert one dinosaur, through the opening of each balloon, be careful to not puncture the balloon if the dinosaur has any pointy edges (like a tail). Next, fill the balloons with water until they’re about 5-6 inches in diameter (or until you can’t easily feel the dinosaur anymore). Tie the opening, then put the balloons in the freezer and freeze over night. Once frozen, cut the opening off of the balloon and pull it off the ice. You should now have a large ice cube that resembles a large egg with the little dinosaur inside and it’s time for fun!
To help the eggs “hatch”, you can put them in a sensory bin (this is the bin we use) and let your kid hold them, and pour warm (not hot) water over them. As they melt they will start cracking and making noise, and it’s fun for little paws (hee hee pun intended) to tap on and pick at. Since it was a hot day at our house though, I took the eggs outside and let Emily (and Kallie) play with them in the grass. The sun helped them to melt relatively quickly, but both of my girls also helped them along by licking the ice (and yes sometimes licking the same one too). Can you tell from the pictures which dinosaurs were Kallie’s? ?
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Letter of the week: “D” is for Dinosaur
This might not be my most creative design but it allowed Emily to practice more gluing skills. To make this I cut out the letter D on construction paper then glued it to a stronger piece of cardstock paper, then had Emily glue on some paper dinosaur clip art I found online and cut out.
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Dinosaur Coloring Pages
Emily had just received these new Crayola Silly Scents scented markers and wanted to color with them so I found these great coloring pages online from a website called Easy Peasy and Fun (and they were FREE to print). I liked them because the images are large and simple, so it was good practice for Emily coloring within the lines and sections (and they smelled really good when we were done too).
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Grow a Dinosaur
I picked up a “”Grows in Water” toy from a dollar store (similar to these ones you can find on Amazon) and as much as it kinda grossed me out now as an adult, Emily thought it was great! It took about 8 days for it to fully grow, but she loved checking on it everyday and once it was all grown up, she carried it around and called it her baby. And then a couple days later she pulled all it’s legs off (poor triceratops) so I had to throw it away.
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Dinosaur Figures Play Set
I purchased some large dinosaur figures (again from a dollar store) and planned to make a sensory bin activity with them but I didn’t plan it very well, so instead I just gave them to Emily to do imaginative play with. She loved the T-Rex and chasing everyone around yelling “RAAAAWWRRRR” (especially at Kallie who kept stealing them for chew toys).
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Handprint Dinosaur Craft
Of course it wouldn’t be a normal week if Emily didn’t do some sort of painting with her hands (or feet). I saw an idea similar to this on Pinterest but they had drawn their own dinosaur and if you remember, this mommy does not have very good drawing skills. So I cheated and cut a dino silhouette out of construction paper and then let Emily get a little carried away with the hand and finger prints. And thus, the Emilyasaurus was born (and below is a short little clip of this loud little beast).
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Dinosaur Shape and Color Matching
Emily is doing great with colors and shapes! She has all of her colors down now and is getting better and better with the shapes. She really loved this activity I purchased from the website www.artsycraftsymom.com and she is still playing with it weekly. The day I took these pictures we were actually at a friend’s house and I brought this to keep her busy. And just like the coloring pages, I love how big these images are and all the bright colors.
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DIY Dinosaur Spike Headband and Tail (and HOW TO make)
This was by far the most fun (and funniest) 5 minutes of the week! Emily loves putting things on her head so each week I’ve tried to incorporate some sort of costume or craft she can dress up in. I kinda winged this craft as I went and I didn’t take any pictures of it’s original construction, so I’m including a few (sad) photos of a re-make, mini version for tutorial purposes. The only supplies you need are scissors, construction paper (in green and multiple other colors) and that good ol’ thing called Scotch tape. This craft is great for using up those random pieces of scrap paper too.
- Step ONE: Roughly measure the circumference of your child’s head and cut a strip of green paper that length, and about 1 1/2 inches wide, and tape the ends together to make what will look like a crown.
- Step TWO: Roughly measure across the top of your child’s head (from forehead to back of the head) and cut another strip of paper, the same width (1 1/2 inches), and attach each end of that to the crown piece, this will make an arch shape that will go up over their head length wise.
- Step THREE: Next, cut a few long strips of green paper, also 1 1/2 inches wide, tape the ends together to make a long “tail”, and then attach one of the ends to the underside of the headband with more tape.
- Step FOUR: Next, cut some rectangles from multiple colors of paper about 6-8 inch long (and also about 1 1/2 inch wide), and tape them to the underside of the arched part of the headband, and all down the tail, a few inches apart in spacing. Make sure there’s an even amount of color showing on each side. Note: the longer the rectangle strips are the taller the “spikes” will be in the end.
- Step FIVE: Pull the sides of the rectangles up over the green strip and tape them together at the ends, along the sides, and also at the base. Repeat this step for each colored piece along the arch and down tail. At this point they should look like little rectangular flags sticking straight up (kind of like tabs on a hanging file folder).
- STEP SIX: Lastly, cut each of the rectangle flags into a triangle by starting at the top and cutting down each side, on a diagonal, to its base. The paper at the point of the triangle might separate a little bit so you can reinforce it with more tape if you want.
And that’s it! Now your little dino is ready to ROAR (literally in Emily’s case)! She took off running full speed, with the tail flying behind her, from our dining room out the back door and all around the yard, roaring the whole time.
And that’s a wrap on our Dinosaur activities week. I highly recommend having one sometime (or at least just making the headband and tail!). Next, we’re moving on to frogs and turtles. Emily can’t quite say the word “Ribbit” so she says “Boppit” instead, and I just have a feeling there’s going to be a lot of silly Boppit-ing around.