Dinosaur Activities for Toddlers

Mommy & Me Preschool (Week 1)

So, are you wondering how my first week of homeschooling three kids went.

It was hard, man, it was definitely a challenge, but we survived.  I really think and I’m hoping that once we get into a groove it will get easier. Actually, I know it will get easier.

As I mentioned before, I’m homeschooling a 4th grader, 2nd grader and a preschooler. Overlapping them is kind of hard but it’s working some of the time. Since our World History this past week we studied archaeology for the older boys, we did A is for archaeologist for Mateo.

Here are my handsome budding archaeologist.  My 7 year old is hooked on being an archaeologist and a zoologist.  He loves collecting things (mostly trash at this stage in life) and he loves digging so I think he may have found his calling.

I know dinosaurs diggers are paleontologist so when they were digging it wasn’t for bones it was for artifacts. But we moved from there to a dinosaur theme for the little one while my older boys continued with archaeology.

Now our lessons plans follow a theme but only as a guide not strictly to the T. The theme is kind of like a compass, and gives me a direction but in it I have flexibility with the freedom to change things as I go.  So, feel free to change things up as you go or just pick and choose what you like best.

Week 1 Mommy & Me Preschool {16 Weeks of Homeschool}

 

Week 1: Dinosaurs

Books we used: (click on image for link)

Dinosaurumpus by Tony Mitton

How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? by Jane Yolen & Mark Teague

Little Ones Do! by Sally Anne Lambert

I Can Draw Dinosaurs by Terry Longhurst – This book is probably for kids who are a bit older but I’m using it more for the shapes they use in the process of drawing the dinosaurs.

Letter & Number of the Week:

-Sensory Bin Alphabet activity – I placed brown rice and foam alphabet letters in a bin and had him pick out the little a and the big A.  We did this throughout the week so I changed it up for him after a few days and he would need to count the letters and place them on the mat that it matched.

-Letter A (use Highway ABC Cards-free printable here),  He loves these alphabet highway mats or ABC road mats.

-Number 0 (use Highway Cards Printable link above) They also have it for numbers.

-Use play dough on ABC mats. I actually just used the same mats as pictured above and had him roll out the playdough and place over the letters.

-Another sensory filled activity: Write the letters and numbers in mud!  First, I did it then he traced it with his finger. Then he “erased” it and did it with his own finger and finally he did it with his dinosaur.  He absolutely loved this. We maybe doing some more mud writing.  We actually did this inside our house and unlike our mud sensory bin experienced that I shared here, this time I kept my eye on him and it wasn’t messy at all.

Science/Social Studies – Freeze some dinosaurs in water and have the paleontologist dig them out. Use spray bottles to develop their fine motor skills. I share here more about this idea.

Math

• Count how many spikes does the dino have? This is perfect for their number practice and the clothespin pinching is great for fine motor skills that will later help in his writing. Color and glue the spikes on a clothespin. Roll the dice and then add the number of spikes to the dino. Use this free printable  or the number dino cards can be found at Toddler Approved for the dino and spikes.
• Dino Sequencing Cards (free printable here) -Smallest to Largest – He loved this activity and I didn’t realize how confusing this could be for his little brain. Definitely going to continue working on this.
• Road Number 0 – Free printable here Drive his cards around the number 0 road.
• We counted dinosaurs and we sorted dinosaurs.

Gross & Fine Motor Skills Through Art, Music & Movement –

Lots of great Dinosaur activities to get the kids moving and creating here.

• Dinosaur Sensory Play – In a small bin add mud and dinosaurs. I share here about our mud play sensory station.
• Make bones from air dry clay and paint them.

• We’ll have our own Dinosaurumpus fun and have them dance to music and move around like a dinosaur.
• Dinosaur prints with paint.

Spanish – All About Me

Part 1 – All about me! My name is… I am _ years old. I like to… I don’t like… How are you?

Buenos dias song video here

Fun snack – I wish I could tell you we’ll have a fun snack every week but I’m not sure I can  follow through on that.  So. you may or may not see our fun snacks in the following weeks.

The snack was toast with peanut butter and raisins for the body, bananas for the head and feet and mandarins for the spikes.

It was definitely a fun week!

Sneak Peak into the rest of the months themes!

And here’s a sneak peak at the rest of the month with the main themes and the other subjects will be outlined in detail before the following week begins.

Week 2: Plants, Trees & Gardening

Letter & Number of the Week: Letter B, Number 1

Spanish: All About Me Part 2 – Body Parts & Senses:

Week 3: Feelings

Letter & Number of the Week: Letter C, Number 2

Spanish: Part 3 – Feelings

Week 4: Farm Animals

Books: If you Give a Pig a Party by Laura Numeroff

Letter & Number of the Week: Letter D, Number 3

Spanish: Farm Animals

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