If your pre-K kiddo loves dinosaurs, he or she is certainly not alone. You probably already know that you can utilize your child’s love of a certain animal, food, character, or dinosaur to your advantage when it comes to education, too. Here, we’ve created a list of fun, exciting, and affordable activities especially for the dinosaur-obsessed families out there.
Exhibit at the Local Museum
Depending on where you live, you may not have access to a full-fledged dinosaur exhibit, but most locales will show off some dinosaur bones from time to time. Today’s bigger cities also make museum passes available for free to library patrons, so be sure to ask your librarian. Visiting the museum and looking at the ancient fossilized remains of dinosaurs is an awe-inspiring activity for kids.
Educational IMAX Movies
IMAX documentaries are some of the best and most exciting of them all, and every once in a while, they feature dinosaur-related content. Be sure to check your local theatre’s offerings, and if you don’t see anything related to dinosaurs, ask about it. Sometimes they will be happy to show a movie in a theme you choose on one of their less-busy days – or perhaps even for a matinee.
Backyard Archaeology
On a nice, sunny, and dry day, hide some plastic dinosaur toys under the dirt in your yard and have your little explorers dig them up. Give them some old makeup brushes and small plastic spades to help them feel like true professionals. This process will spark some seriously fun imaginative play, and you will be delighted at the spark in your little one’s eyes as he or she reveals the loot. (Be sure to thoroughly wash the dinosaurs before allowing them into your child’s room for daily play.)
Dinosaur Crafts
Arts and crafts are amazing for pre-K kids, and there are plenty of ideas on Pinterest, Instagram, and other social sites. This could be a simple as a free printable dinosaur coloring page or as complex as gluing various numbers of felt dots on to felt brontosaurus necks for a counting lesson. “Pin the Tail on the Triceratops” is a fun option that you can create yourself, (just use tape rather than pins), and you can even make dinosaur puppets from brown paper lunch bags and various colors of construction paper.
Dinosaur-Themed Reading
Finally, if your child is over-the-top in love with dinosaurs, make sure to fit them into your daily reading routine. Some excellent book options that are age-appropriate include:
- Dinosaur Bones by Bob Barner offers facts, fun, and a “dinometer” that can help your little ones understand just how gargantuan their favorite creatures really were.
- Ten Terrible Dinosaurs by Paul Strickland who leave the book one by one after causing mischief until only one very tired terrible dinosaur remains.
- Chalk by Bill Thomson is about three kids who find a bag of chalk on a rainy day. It’s a wordless picture book that allows your child to come up with his or her own story – and there’s a dinosaur central to the story, of course.
Dinosaur-loving pre-K kids are curious, so finding activities that are themed around dinosaurs is important for keeping them engaged. These activities are only the tip of the iceberg, but they represent an excellent sampling of the many ways you can keep your child interested and engaged in the world around him or her.