Monthly Crafting Book Club: How Do Dinosaurs...? Series

            Welcome back for the March Monthly Crafting Book Club! This month's selection is for the fun “How Do Dinosaurs...” series. I was pretty excited about this as the one thing Myka has been consistently interested in since she was 2 is dinosaurs and I've been meaning to check these books out!

            I knew my friend had recently nabbed a lot of cheap dinosaur-related books for her older soon who has become interested in them as well, so we borrowed two: How Do Dinosars Say Goodnight? and How Do Dinosaurs Learn Their Colors?I thought these would be good choices for us because Myka usually makes a chore of bedtime and, while she's pretty good with her colors, she still has a hard time remembering some of their names. Here are some snippets from each so you get a feel for them.

“How does a dinosaur say good night when Papa comes in to turn off the light? Does a dinosaur slam his tail and pout? Does he throw his teddy bear all about?”

“Dinosaur colors start with red: A red fire truck tucked under the bed, a purple towel left on the floor, a green sign taped to the bedroom door...”

            Fun, right? The illustrations are amusing too. Myka laughs every time we get to the page in the bedtime book where the t-rex is puckering up for a kiss. We also like that the names of the dinosaurs are “hidden” on each page so we can learn more about dinos too! I highly recommend both of these books for the dinosaur lover in your life! I'm sure the others in the series are fun as well.

On to the craft! I had an idea for combining different aspects from each book into this month's activity. It's not so much a craft as an activity, but I hope you like it nonetheless!

Bedtime Dinos Color Matching Activity

Ages 3+

What You'll Need:

-marker

-a rainbow of felt plus white (as pictured)

-scissors (fabric scissors come in really handy for the felt, if you have some)

-a rainbow of dinos (as pictured)

(In case you're wondering why there is tape in the picture but not listed on the materials list, I was going to put this on the wall if we happened to do it while the little monster was awake. Lol)

*On each color of felt, draw a book, lips, and X. These are the “items” I decided to incorporate from How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? The book for an extra bedtime story, the lips for a goodnight kiss, and an X to symbolize a hug.

*Cut your felt pieces and printed dinosaurs out. You can make the dinosaurs out of felt too, of course, if you like.

*Next, line your white felt up with a colored piece. Lay your dino out to look like he is laying on a bed. Mark your lines and cut out your “beds and pillows”.

*Once you have everything cut out, it's time to tuck your dinos into bed! This in and of itself was amusing to my 4 year old. :)

*Once they are tucked in, ask your child to put the matching color of books, kisses, and hugs on the correct bed.

And it conveniently fits into a sandwich baggie for easy clean up or taking it with you somewhere to keep the kids entertained. 

            I hope you and your kids find this to be a fun way to work on colors. I am a fan of starting your kids out early on using scissors too, so if you think they can be safe with them, definitely encourage your child to try cutting some of the pieces out, such as the beds and pillows. You could probably do this activity with 2 year olds as well, they just won't be able to help you as much in making it. Oh. And one more thing. Even with all of the cutting, this really doesn't take that long to set up.

            Don't forget to stop by all of the other bloggers who participated this month for even more craft/activity ideas!

Monthly Crafting Book Club

 

 

Tot School Gathering Place