Dinosaurs:

Crafts 

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 STEGOSAURUS PAPER PLATE: 

Materials: Paper plate, coloured paper, markers or crayons, child-safe scissors, stapler, glue stick, sequins or craft gems  for further decoration  and white glue (Optional).

Step 1: Cut a paper plate in half (you can now make 2 Stegosaurus crafts) and if your child wants he/she may colour it with crayons or markers. 
Step 2: Have your child pick out the colour of paper he/she wishes to use for the Stegosaurus’ back plates and for the head, tail and legs.
Step 3: I then folded the paper for the back plates five times and then cut out a simple shape for the plates (you can make the shape more rounded or more tear drop as well).  By folding the paper I was able to make five identical back plates.  Help your child staple the back plates to the rim of the paper plate.
Step 4: Cut out a simple tail shape and a head for the dinosaur and have your child draw a face on the head.  Either staple or glue these pieces to the paper plate (we glued them).
Step 5: Cut out angled rectangular shaped legs and have your child draw toes on them.  Then have your child glue the legs onto the paper plate.
Step 6: If your child desires, let him/her decorate the Stegosaurus further by adding sequins or craft jewels with white glue.
Step 7: Allow the craft to draw and then display or play with it!

DINOSAUR CLAY FIGURES:

Materials: Basic salt dough (I found my recipe on Pinterest here: Salt Dough and found that it worked very well), acrylic paint, paint brushes, newspaper to cover the work space, a jar of water and paper towels, a paint pallet or a piece of waxed paper to put the paint on, old clothes or an art smock to protect clothing while painting.

NOTE: This craft takes more than one day to make as the dough needs to dry.  We didn’t use the oven to dry the dough but I wish we had tried that as it took many days to dry our pieces and we had to turn them over to dry the underside.

 Step 1:  Make your basic salt dough (1 cup of salt, 2 cups of flour and 1 cup of warm water) and let your child create his/her very own dinosaur.

Step 2: Let the dough either air dry or bake at 200F until it is dry.

Step 3: Give your child the paints and brushes and let him/her colour the dinosaur

Step 2: (Parent step) leave some Q-tips whole, but cut some in half and cut some at the tip to make differing sizes to represent the bones.  This was more difficult than I thought it would be and I discovered that if was easier to cut if I bent the Q-tip first. Watch out sometimes the pieces fly away when you are cutting them!!

Step 3: My children both wanted to look at a picture to make their dinosaurs.  My eldest went so far as to trace his basic shape onto white paper and then lay out the Q-tips.  My youngest just made his up as he went along and didn’t plan his at all.  Just give your children white glue and the Q-tips and have them either dip and press to the page or apply the glue from the bottle to the black page and then press the Q-tips onto the glue.

Step 4: Have your child glue the skull to the picture as well.
Step 5: Let the picture dry and then display!

DINOSAUR FEET:

Materials: Two  rectangular shaped tissue boxes, paint and paint brushes (we used acrylic paints), newspaper to cover the work space, a jar of water and paper towels, a paint pallet or a piece of waxed paper to put the paint on, old clothes or an art smock to protect clothing while painting, child safe scissors, coloured paper for the claws, glue stick.
 
Step 1: Have your child paint the top and four sides of the tissue box the colour of his/her choice.   There is no need to paint the bottom of this craft.  If you do not want to see the tissue box’s packaged design underneath the paint you may need to paint two coats.  We liked the look of the stripes underneath our green paint so decided to only paint one coat to the boxes.

Step 2: When the boxes are dry cut out triangular claws from the coloured paper and have your child glue them to the boxes.

Step 3: Once dried, your child can where these dinosaur feet like slippers.  Let your child stomp around the house like a fierce dinosaur!  My 6 year old loved this part!

PAPER ROLL BRACHIOSAURUS/ DIPLODOCUS:

Materials: Empty paper roll (we used toilet paper rolls but paper towel rolls would work, too), scissors (adult step), whtie glue, googly eyes or markers, paint (optional).  
 
Step 1: (Parent step or older child) Cut two arches on opposite sides at the bottom of your paper roll (see photo).

Step 2: (Parent step or older child) Now cut two smaller arches between the first two to create four little legs for you dinosaur!

Step 3: (Parent or older child) Cut to create two long rectangular strips attached to the paper roll legs.  These will be the head and tail of your brachiosaurus or diplodicus.

Step 4: Trim the top of one rectangle to create a head and bend down to show the face.  Trim the second rectangle to turn it into a tail and bend it over all the way to the base of the paper roll.

Step 5: Glue on eyes with white glue.  One the glue has dried your child can play with these dinos! 

Optional Step...before gluing eyes to the dinosaur's face paint the entire thing any colour your child chooses.  Once it is dry (we let ours dry on waxed paper) glue the eyes as in step 5. 

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Sometimes the simplest things, like stickers, make the best craft projects, especially if your child is little.

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To learn more

about flying dinosaurs check here: livescience.com

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PRE-SCHOOL IDEA:

STICKER COLLAGE:

Materials: Various stickers of dinosaurs, coloured paper, markers and/or crayons (Optional).

Step 1: Let your child pick the colour of paper he/she wants to use for this craft and him/her various stickers to make either a collage or a scene.

Step 3: If your child so desires have him/her add details or embellishments to the scene.

Clothes Pin Pterodactyl:

- A Three Step Craft!

Materials: brown pom pom, googly eyes, brown craft foam (or brown paper), white glue, wax paper, toothpick.

Step 1: Gather your materials.

Step 2: Cut simple wings and feet from the brown paper.  We made a half circle but you could be more creative. 

Step 3: Glue the feet to the wings.  Also, glue the small googly eyes to the clothes pin on the non-pinching side.  Press the clothes pin over the wings and let it dry! 

There are so many fun crafts & projects related to dinosaurs! Have your child pick which ones to make based on his/her favourite dinosaur!

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DINOSAUR BONES PICTURE:

Materials: Q-tips, white glue, waxed paper, black paper, sharp scissors (parent use only), a picture of a dinosaur skeleton (optional), white paper, child-safe scissors, a pencil, a black marker. 

Step 1: Have your child choose the type of dinosaur he/she would like to make.  My youngest chose a T-Rex and my eldest a Spinosaurus.  Have your child draw the skull (or help him/her by drawing it yourself) and then trace it in black marker and cut it out. 

T-REX MACARONI BOX PUPPET:

Materials: One empty macaroni and cheese box, sharp scissors (for adult use), paint and paint brushes (we used acrylic paints), newspaper to cover the work space, a jar of water and paper towels, a paint pallet or a piece of waxed paper to put the paint on, old clothes or an art smock to protect clothing while painting, child safe scissors, white paper for the teeth., glue stick.

Step 1:  (Parent step) Using the sharp scissors start to cut width wise along the middle of the box along three sides, leaving one side uncut.  Carefully fold the box over towards the uncut side. You now should be able to fit your hand in the box and open and close the box like it is a mouth.

Step 2: Get all the paint stuff ready and have your child choose the colour for the dinosaur. 

Step 3: Paint the box the base colour. My eldest son decided to hold the box in his left hand  (keeping the mouth open) whilst painting with his right and then seemed to work very well.  The box will require two coats of paint to cover the product information.

Step 4:  You may need to set it down on waxed paper to dry but we had a hot day so the box dried quickly while my son held it so we didn’t need to do that. 

Step 5: Next, colour the inside of the mouth (the part that folds and touches) red. Then , paint eyes and nostrils.

Step 6: Once the box is dried cut out triangular teeth from the white paper and glue them to the box.

Step 7: Have fun!