Theme: DINOSAURS
(Open thematic poster)
CIRCLE TIME
This portion of the day is ideal for getting children up and moving. Tell them, “You are
inside a dinosaur egg.” (Children curl up as tightly as they can). “You are moving
around to crack the egg.” (Children wiggle around but remain curled up). “Poke your
head out of the egg.” (Children raise their heads and upper bodies). “The dinosaur is
growing.” (Children stretch and return to standing positions). Ask children what kind of
dinosaur they were mimicking.
To guide you in your discussions about dinosaurs, we have prepared a simple game to
explain, with pictures, the difference between herbivores and carnivores. (Open dinosaur
diet) Print, laminate and attach Velcro to the pictures. Have children associate the
pictograms to the correct card.
AREA SETUP
Cut out the different dinosaur tracks. (Open dinosaur tracks and dinosaurs) Glue the
tracks on the floor to create a path. Have children follow identical tracks to discover
which dinosaur they belong to. Be sure to glue the corresponding dinosaurs at the end of
each path. Paths can lead to the bathroom, to the sink, etc.
VARIOUS WORKSHOPS
Have fun with these great workshop ideas provided by Caroline Allard.
Building blocks:
 Create giant blocks using empty cardboard boxes covered with wrapping paper.
 Add the dinosaurs you have on hand
 Build (or have children build) a mountain for the dinosaurs….if you have the
time, paper mache is child’s play.
 Add plastic bones or rawhide bones for dogs. Children will add them to their
constructions
Arts & Crafts:
 Dinosaur stencils
 Sand and glue to create a sandy dinosaur
 Dinosaur pictures to trace using tracing paper
 Dinosaur coloring pages
 Various objects which can be dipped in paint to create dinosaur tracks. In stores
you can find animal footprints specially for stamping.
 Neutral, less vibrant colored crayons….for drawing dinosaurs
Role Play:
 The archeologist: a hat, beige colored clothing (shirt and short), sneakers,
different accessories (binoculars, tweezers, camera).
 The explorer: survival kit (water bottle and flashlight), camping kit (sleeping bag,
net to protect from mosquitoes)
Manipulation:
 Memory game about dinosaurs
 Modeling clay with neutral colors (beige, brown, white), you may also want to
add sand, oats, or sawdust to create different textures
 Dinosaur puzzles
 Homemade game to teach the difference between herbivore and carnivore
dinosaurs (picture association game)
 Different lengths of string representing the actual size of dinosaurs…to make
comparisons, include strings the length of cats and dogs too. Children will
understand just how big dinosaurs really were.
Reading/Relaxation:
 Books about dinosaurs and prehistoric life
 Dinosaur or animal puppets
Music/Motor skills:
 Psychomotor obstacle course…walk like dinosaurs
 Step in paint and leave tracks on a large sheet of paper, just like dinosaur tracks
 Make dinosaur sounds…be inventive!
Sensory bins:
 Water table: add aquarium pebbles to create a lake. Use miniature dinosaurs. Cut
styrofoam plates or trays to make islands.
 Sand box: children play the role of archeologists and dig for bones you have
hidden. They can retrieve them with tweezers and then clean them with
paintbrushes, etc.
Science:
 Use plaster to make an impression or to shape a dinosaur tooth. Make a mould in
sand and pour plaster into it.
ACTIVITY SHEETS
(Open activity sheet pre-writing D) Print one sheet per child. Children trace the letter
“D” in the word “dinosaur”.
PICTURE GAME
The pictures may be used as a memory game or to spark a conversation with the group.
Use the pictures to decorate the daycare or a specific thematic corner. (Open picture
game dinosaurs) Print, laminate, and store in a “Ziploc” bag or in your thematic bins.
WORD FLASHCARDS
The flashcards may be used during circle time or in your reading and writing corners.
They can also be used to identify your thematic bins. (Open word flashcards dinosaurs)
Brachiosaurus, Coelophysis, Pteranodon, Tyrannosaurus, Iguanodon, Triceratops,
Diplodocus, herbivore, carnivore, bone, fossil, paleontologist
ACTIVITIES
Hunt and seek
(Open hunt and seek dinosaurs) Print and laminate. Children pick cards and search for
the elements in the prehistoric décor.
Archeology
Hide plastic dinosaurs in a sandbox. With a brush, children dust the sand in search of the
hidden dinosaurs, just like archeologists.
Dinosaur route
Prepare a prehistoric route. Here are a few suggestions of obstacles: children go through
a cave (a tunnel or simply under a table draped with a sheet), cross over dinosaur eggs
(fill a small pool with brown paper balls), jump over a lake (hoola hoops), and walk
among the vines (hang garbage bag strips from the ceiling)…
Dinosaur bones
Cut out the dinosaur bones (Open dinosaur bones) Hide them throughout the daycare.
When children find a bone, they deposit it on a table. Once all the bones are found,
children reconstruct the dinosaur skeleton.
Dinosaur memory game
Show children different dinosaurs (picture game or plastic dinosaurs). Next, place them
on a table and cover them with a blanket. Have children close their eyes. Remove one or
more dinosaurs depending on the level of difficulty you feel appropriate. Take away the
blanket and have children guess which dinosaur is missing.
Dinosaur hunt
Hide plastic dinosaurs within the daycare. Upon your signal, children must retrieve them.
Dinosaur walk
Children take large steps. At each step, they say “BOOM!” You may use musical
instruments to sound out the steps.
Dinosaur family
Use pictures of dinosaurs. Laminate and cut them into three pieces each: head, body, and
legs. Children discover new dinosaur families.
My puzzle
Have children choose pictures of dinosaurs which you have found in magazines
beforehand. They glue their pictures on heavy cardboard and cut them in different-sized
pieces. They will love their homemade puzzles!
Dinosaur search
Draw dinosaur feet and laminate them. Follow the footprints throughout the daycare.
Where the footprints end, children find a bin of plastic dinosaurs.
Dinosaur nest
Place a basket full of large plastic eggs in the center of a circle. You may paint colorful
spots with acrylic paint prior to the activity. In each egg, inscribe a simple activity
(jump, dance, raise one leg, etc.) Play music and have children pass the basket around the
circle. When the music stops, the child holding the basket opens the egg and acts out the
instruction.
EARLY SCIENCE
Miniature Jurassic Park
Provide a large bin to which children may add sand, water, pebbles, leaves, grass, and
small branches. Encourage them to build a dinosaur park by creating streams, mountains,
volcanoes, trees, etc.
CULINARY ACTIVITIES
Dinosaur nests
3 cups of Chinese noodles
1 ½ cups of chocolate chips
1 tablespoon of butter
Use oval-shaped candy to represent the eggs.
Method for nests:
Lightly crush the noodles, reserve. Melt the chocolate chips and the butter in a casserole
over low heat or in the microwave. Add the noodles. Combine until all the noodles are
coated with chocolate. Using a spoon, deposit small quantities of the mixture onto waxed
paper. Delicately arrange candy in the center of the nests. Let stand until the chocolate
has hardened once again. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Makes 30 nests.
Scented dinosaur
Children paint a dinosaur onto tactile paper using chocolate pudding. When the paint has
dried, add googly eyes.
Dinosaur meal
Display a large plate filled with lettuce and hard boiled eggs in the center of the table.
Children remove the egg shells themselves.
ARTS & CRAFTS
Silly Dinosaur
Provide each child with a sheet of paper and markers. Beforehand, draw a starting point
on each sheet of paper. Children must create a dinosaur from the predetermined point.
Dinosaur shells
Make a collage using egg shells on a black piece of construction paper.
Dinosaur skeleton
Build dinosaur skeletons using toothpicks on black construction paper.
My little dinosaur
(Open model dinosaur craft) Print a craft for each child. Children color the different parts
and glue them onto an empty toilet paper roll.
Mysterious dinosaurs
Children invent their own dinosaurs using the material with which they are presented:
modeling clay, modeling dough, feathers, buttons, pipe cleaners, sparkles, cardboard
pieces, tissue paper…
Fossil
Using modeling dough, make an impression of children’s hands or feet. Allow to dry
before painting.
My dinosaur
Print dinosaur coloring pages. Children trace the contour of the dinosaur using
toothpicks and white glue. Sprinkle with fine sand or sparkles and remove excess.
COLORING PAGES
(Open coloring pages theme dinosaurs)
SEQUENTIAL STORY
(Open sequential story dinosaurs) Print the story. Laminate and cut out. Children
recreate the story in chronological order.
SONGS & RHYMES
Dinosaurs all around
There are dinosaurs stomping all around, there are dinosaurs stomping all around
There are dinosaurs all around, stomping on the ground
There are dinosaurs stomping all around
There are dinosaurs flying all around, there are dinosaurs flying all around
There are dinosaurs all around, flying in the air
There are dinosaurs flying all around
There are dinosaurs swimming all around, there are dinosaurs swimming all around
There are dinosaurs all around, swimming in the sea
There are dinosaurs swimming all around
********
Dinosaurs by Patricia Morrison
(Sung to Are your Sleeping)
They lived long ago, they lived long ago
Dinosaurs, dinosaurs
Now they are extinct, now they are extinct
Dinosaurs, dinosaurs
SUGGESTION OF THE WEEK
Joanne Arsenault carries us into the marvelous world of dinosaurs.
This week, children become paleontologists (person who studies dinosaur bones and
fossils).
Monday: The hunt is on for dinosaur footprints
Supplies: Sandbox, plastic dog bones, salt shaker filled with flour
Hide the plastic dog bones in the sandbox. Provide children with a paintbrush to remove
the dust (sand) and a magnifying glass to examine the bones they find.
Children make impressions in modeling clay with plastic dinosaurs.
Allow children to sprinkle the tracks the dinosaurs left behind with the salt shaker filled
with flour. With their paintbrushes and magnifying glasses, they remove the flour to
discover fossils.
Outdoors:
If the sandbox is not frozen, children make impressions in the sand with their boots.
They try walking like penguins, walking with one foot behind the other, walking on
tiptoes, and taking giant steps like dinosaurs. Compare the impressions.
Tuesday: What a funny egg
Supplies: Oval-shaped balloon, hard boiled egg with shell
Show children the difference between the two objects (size). Explain that dinosaur eggs
were much bigger than the balloon and that, with the largest dinosaur egg, we could have
made an omelet for 35 people.
Craft: A silly egg puzzle
Trace the shape of a fairly large egg on white construction paper. Draw lines to divide
the egg into four puzzle pieces. Using markers or crayons, children color their eggs, cut
out the contour, and then cut on the lines drawn inside the egg. Have them enjoy their
puzzle by then reconstructing it on a piece of colored construction paper of their choice.
Have a dinosaur egg hunt.
Cut out several eggs of the same size in construction paper of different colors. You must
have 2 red eggs, 2 orange eggs, 2 blue eggs, etc…
Hide one egg of each color in the daycare (on walls, on the floor, on large toys, etc.).
Place the second egg of each color in a bag or box decorated for the theme. Children
each pick one egg and search for the other egg of the same color.
You may try the same game with eggs of different sizes, yet still the same color.
Wednesday: Dinosaur discovery
Supplies: books about dinosaurs
Study the dinosaur books with the children. Ask them questions. What did dinosaurs
eat? Some dinosaurs were herbivores and ate only plants, fruit, and flowers. Other
dinosaurs were carnivores and ate insects, eggs, reptiles, and mammals.
Were dinosaurs small or big? The smallest dinosaur was 1 meter long and weighed 3.5
kg. It was the compsognathus. The dryosaurus was 3 to 4 meters long, the nodosaurus
was 5.5 meters long, the triceratops was 9 meters long and 3 meters high, the
tyrannosaurus was 14 meters long, and the mamenchisaurus was 22 meters long. The
longest dinosaur was the diplodocus. He measured 23 meters long. The tallest dinosaur
was the brachiosaurus which was 15 meters high. Dinosaurs were as long as a house,
sometimes even two or three houses or as long as the entire street.
Did all dinosaurs look the same? Use books to show the differences. There were
dinosaurs with horns and large ears such as the triceratops, dinosaurs with a ring around
their heads such as the dilophosaurus, and dinosaurs with small heads but very long necks
such as the brachiosaurus.
Craft: My dinosaur
Trace a large dinosaur model twice onto a paper grocery bag for each child. Children cut
out their two dinosaurs. Place the two dinosaurs one on top of the other and staple the
contour, leaving a space to stuff the dinosaurs’ stomach with tissues. Once stuffed, staple
completely closed. Children paint their dinosaurs as they wish.
Thursday: Our dinosaur park
Supplies: Sandbox, rocks, plastic miniature trees, plastic dinosaurs, empty tissue box cut
in two (to create caves), broken egg shells which have been washed, modeling clay to
shape tiny dinosaurs which can be inserted into plastic eggs, small plastic containers to
make ponds or lakes.
Collective project: Our dinosaur park
Make materials readily available for the children. Allow them to create their dinosaur
park as they imagine it.
Game: Steps
Following the beat of a drum, children take giant steps or tiny mouse steps. When the
drum plays loudly, they must take giant steps, and when it plays softly they must take
tiny mouse steps. Children respect the rhythm.
Once they are used to the game, choose a child to play the drum.
Friday: A prehistoric animal
Supplies: Different types of fruit
Lay different types of fruit, a plate, and a plastic knife and fork on the table.
Ideal fruits are bananas, strawberries, oranges, cut pineapple pieces, and melon. Use
them to make a model dinosaur. To create the body, you may use a slice of melon. Use
banana pieces to make the legs. Cut strawberries into triangular shapes to represent the
points on the dinosaur’s back. Make a tail out of a piece of pineapple and a head out of a
slice of orange, etc.
Children use fruit pieces to make their own dinosaur-shaped snacks.
Close the week with a “Barney” movie.
Have a great week!
Marie-Josée, Karine, Nancy, Sonia, Magalie, Patricia, and all our collaborators.
Our job is to make yours easier. Do not hesitate to suggest themes you would like to see
us develop. Let us know of any printable documents or tools which could be useful.
Send us your comments and suggestions!
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