Dinosaurs
There are so many fantastic ways to engage with your child’s interest in dinosaurs, here are a few ideas:
- Use toy dinosaurs and paint to make dinosaur track paintings.
- Make a miniature dinosaur world – fill a tub with sand, sticks, rocks and other natural objects to create an ancient world for toy dinosaurs to play in.
- Be a dinosaur! Roar, stomp, chase and hide. Play is a great way to learn!
- Do some dinosaur craft such as the one at the end of this blog.
- Read, read and read.
Cockburn Libraries have a vast array of books in the Junior Non-Fiction section to keep your child engaged with the subject. You will also find a large selection of picture books about dinosaurs in the Junior Kindy section.
So engage your child’s love of all things dinosaur. The fascination with dinosaurs may not last forever, but a love of learning could!
Dinosaur Books
This book is hilarious. It has everything that a child could wish for in a story. A dinosaur, dragons, goblins, and trolls. Prince Charming and a myriad of fairy tale characters. And to top it all off…POO!
Danny and his dinosaur steed set out on a fabulous adventure in search of a princess to save, but along the way the noble steed manages to devour all the characters that they meet.
With a cheeky feminist twist at the end, this book will have you and your child laughing the whole way through.
Australia’s amazing dinosaurs / dinosaur consultant, Timothy Frauenfelder. | Cockburn Libraries (spydus.com)
This book looks at dinosaurs that have been discovered in Australia. It describes each species and importantly tells the reader how to pronounce the name. My personal favourite is the Muttaburrasaurus (mutta-burra-sore-us), such a fun word to say aloud. This book describes some of the science that allows us to know dinosaurs, such as fossil evidence and gives supplementary information such and dinosaur timelines and a dinosaur family tree.
Australia’s Amazing Dinosaurs is a fantastic book to share with a young dinosaur enthusiast. It gives a local outlook to their passion and examines the how, where, why and when of dinosaur science in Australia.
I wish there were dinosaurs / Amanda Niland, Christina Booth. | Cockburn Libraries (spydus.com)
This is a lovely story about a young boy imagining what life would be like if dinosaurs roamed among us. He wishes that there were dinosaurs at the zoo and goes through a few thoughts about how wonderful it would be to see a triceratops or a plesiosaur in real life. But then he has a realisation…
Oh no! Just a thought…I hope nothing goes wrong.
I hope all the fences are terribly strong.
A very sweet book that encourages children to imagine what it would be like if dinosaurs still existed. Using dinosaur’s proper names and describing some of their attributes, this would make a good bedtime read for your young dinosaur lover.
Dinosaur Roar
Dino Craft
Hand Print Apatosaurus
Apatosaurus were massive sauropods that lived in the late Jurassic Period more than 150 million years ago. They were one of the largest animals to have ever walked on land. We are going to make a slightly smaller version of the Apatosaurus in this craft activity.
What you’ll need:
- Coloured card.
- Glue
- Scissors
- Optional – wiggly eyes, pom poms, coloured paper
Trace around your child’s hand and cut it out.
Using the same piece of card, draw a neck and head shape and cut it out.
Glue the neck to the hand print. Remember that the fingers will be the legs of the Apatosaurus and the thumb will be the tail.
Now either draw on eyes or glue down wriggly eyes. Decorate you Apatosaurus with pom poms, or coloured paper.
