Preschool Theme – Dinosaurs
Get preschoolers excited about learning with this hands-on preschool dinosaur theme. Included are ideas for circle time activities, arts and crafts, math and science, music and movement and pretend play. Dinosaur books that are appropriate for the theme are recommended.
Dinosaur Circle Time
Talk about what a fossil is. Have the children feel a small rock or a fossil sample if you can find one and discus how we learn about dinosaurs through the fossils that we have found.
Talk about meat eaters and plant eaters. Ask the preschoolers which type of dinosaur probably had sharp teeth?
Dinosaur Arts and Crafts
Make Dinosaur rubbings from purchased plastic molds or make them yourself by tracing a pattern on a piece of cardboard and going over it with glue.
Make a dinosaur fossil by stamping a dinosaur shape into home-made or purchased dough. It is best to use a dough recipe that can be baked and hardened to show children that fossils are hard like rocks. This activity can also be done with leaves or pieces of pasta.
Print out a picture of a dinosaur. Give the preschoolers dried white beans and have them blue them where the bones would be on the dinosaur.
Print out a picture of a dinosaur. Have the preschoolers trace the dinosaur with glue. Cover the glue with sand and gently shake the excess off. Allow the glue to dry.
Cut a dinosaur egg out of coffee filters. Use watered-down paint to decorate them. Marble paint on any color paper. Let it dry. Cut the paper into an egg shape to make a dinosaur egg.
Dinosaur Math and Science
Fill Dinosaur Eggs (plastic Easter eggs) with items of different weight. Have the preschoolers put them in order from lightest to heaviest.
Go on a fossil hunt. Give each preschooler a magnifying glass and a container to hold rocks. Take them outside and have them collect rocks. Once inside, have the preschoolers look at each rock with the magnifying glass. Are any of the rocks fossils?
Be a dinosaur scientist. Fill the sand table with dinosaur toys and have each preschooler use a paint brush to find the dinosaurs in the sand. Talk about why scientists use brushes to find bones rather than digging with tools that could damage the bones.
Freeze small dinosaur toys in a small cup of water. Give each child a spoon or other blunt object to chisel away and help dig out the dinosaur bones.
Make chocolate chip cookies. Talk about what a paleontologist is. Give each preschooler a toothpick to pick the chocolate chips out of the cookie.
Put toy dinosaurs inside a balloon. Blow the balloon up and cover in paper mache. Allow the dinosaur egg to dry and then paint the outside. Have the preschoolers dictate a story about their dinosaur egg and draw a picture of the dinosaur’s mother.
Put a handful of toy dinosaurs inside a plastic bag. Have the preschoolers estimate how many dinosaurs are inside.
Talk about how big a dinosaur was. A brontosaurus was 75 feet long and had a foot the size of a page from the newspaper. Measure a 75 foot long piece of string and take the children outside to see how long it is.
Draw a dinosaur footprint on a piece of newspaper (the full page opened up) and have the preschoolers stand inside of it.
Sandbox Volcanoes – Have children build volcanoes in the sand table. Scoop out a space at the top of the volcano and fill it with baking soda and vinegar. Watch the volcano erupt.
Dinosaur Music and Movement
Play dinosaur tag. One child is the T-Rex and the others are all plant eaters. The T-Rex tags the plant eaters. When the plant eaters are tagged they must sit down.
Tie paper lunch bags to children’s feet with a piece of yarn. Let the preschoolers stomp around like dinosaurs or dance to music.
Dinosaur Pretend Play
Fill dinosaur eggs (plastic Easter eggs) with small dinosaur toys. Let children pretend to help the dinosaurs hatch out of the eggs.
Fill the sand table with dinosaur eggs. Allow the preschoolers to find dinosaur nests.
Fill the bean table with toy dinosaurs.
Dinosaur Language and Reading