Our Dinosaur Unit

Since we have been done with our letters I was trying to decide what we would do next. Well, I am watching my friends daughter every other week now. This week was her 1st week with me and I decided to try out Dinosaurs with the kids. I figured ALL kids like dinosaurs and there are SO many wonderful ideas online that I knew i would have NO problems keeping the kids busy for the week.
I researched and searched MANY blogs, and google imaged many ideas. I will share some great ones with you!
Living at the Whiteheads Zoo had a Dino playdate a couple weeks ago and made the kids dino eggs...well I took this idea and made our own. I didn't have sand so I used moon sand and worked well enough.

I went to Domiciliary Artillery and downloaded her pdf file. The kids loved tracing the lines. Colton is still a little young but made a great effort!

Dino pre writing this link will take you to some more fun worksheets to help pre writing skills. I got these fromConfessions of a homeschooler. She has WAY more ideas and I took a couple ideas that both kids could do.

I also made some clay. This link will take you there. It has video AND a list of directions. However, I let it sit out and it never dried up. So, I baked it and it worked a tad better. I think next time I will just do salt dough. The kids LOVED this! We made fossils with this clay from the Dollar store dinosaurs. 

 The next day we painted them for a fun activity!

I also made a heads and tails game. I cut these out and glued them to cereal boxes to make them last a lot longer. Dino heads and tails is the pdf file to download and more ideas are at 1+1+1=1. I love all her ideas!

I threw together a dino sensory bin as well. I need to invest in a plastic shoebox for them. I used a big round Hello Kitty bowl. My husband laughed and said dinos and cats don't mix...well hey maybe not but it worked for the week.

I also cut some shapes out and had the kids piece together a couple 'Shape-o-sauruses' Both kids loved guing and talking about all kinds of dinos.

The week continued with story time too! I had the kids eat some yummy mandarin oranges while I read a couple books. I read "How do Dinosaurs say I love you" and "How do Dinosaurs say Goodnight" They went over real well and I even read them more than once. 

At the Dollar Tree on a Dinosaur hunt, I found some grow your own Dinosaurs. An 18 pack! I was ecstatic and gave each child a bowl to grow them in. I also printed off some dino pictures of them without their "skin" and had the kids color. This was a fun activity. Colton really loved it and it kept him a lot busier than I thought it would.

That was our week! A very busy one too! Most of these were done in the first day, I guess a 4 yr old really knows how to keep you on your toes! This coming week is my off week so Colton and I will work in his work books, play with play dough, and work with his flash cards.