From math to music, yoga to crafts, there are many ways to have Dinovember fun. This dinosaur craft is creative, colorful, and counts.
This dino play-of-the-day just needs a few items that you likely have already. To start, adult hands need to cut a dinosaur shape out of thicker paper or light cardboard. We used the sides of a cereal box and cut out two pieces, one for the front and one for the back. Kid hands get to paint the dinosaur however they want. With paint dabbers, Little Sister tried a few spots of each color here and there before deciding she wanted lots of green. Then, she did the spots closer together to cover most of the dinosaur. To the head, she added two googly eyes.
The legs of the dinosaur are toilet paper roll cut into two halves or rings. Since the roll is thicker to cut, adult hands better snip two slits, one on each side, not quite half way down. To make the dinosaur stand, just slide the body into the slits on the rings. It may need some adjusting but should stand as long as the leg pieces are close to the tail and head.
Ten wooden clothespins make the spiny plates on the back of the dinosaur. If interested, kids can paint the legs and clothespins too. For some math fun, I wrote the numbers 1 to 10 on the clothespins. You can skip this step and just let kids clip on the spikes, as long as they are dry.
Little Sister, who is 4 years old, does know what the numbers look like. She picked out the clothespin with number 1 and placed it at the head of her dinosaur. Although she could have used either side, she used the one with the head pointing right, so the 1 clothespin was on her right as well. She then attached the 2 clothespin farther down. Instead of putting the 3 after the two, she started mixing up the numbers, giggling as she did so. She thought putting the numbers incorrectly was a great joke, especially when she got to 10. She read the numbers as to their incorrect order and changed 10 to 20, trying to keep a straight face, but going into peals of laughter. She named the dinosaur Spikey and introduced it to Charlotte, the Really Big Dinosaur.
This dinosaur craft was lots of fun for both of us. Might Spike The Dino come and play at your house?