My daughter wants to celebrate her 6th birthday with a huge dinosaur-theme party. The only problem is that she won’t be turning six until late next spring. That’s an eternity for a kindergartner.
In an effort to make the wait a bit more tolerable, I’ve been collecting dinosaur-theme crafts for her to make on the weekends. Some of them will be used as party decorations while others are being used as tests to see if they are appropriate projects to make with a dozen or so 5 year olds.
Here’s what we’ve been working on:
PAPER PLATE DINO
Materials:
Paper plate
Green and yellow craft paint
Green construction paper
Stapler
Pen
Directions:
Paint the middle of the plate green.
Paint the lower half of the plate’s rim green.
Paint the top half of the rim yellow.
Allow to dry thoroughly.
Cut out the head, legs and the beginning of the tail from the green-painted section of the plate, making sure you don’t cut into the flat part of the plate.
Cut into the yellow rim to form the spikes (little triangles). Again, do not cut into the center of the plate.
Save the scraps of yellow from the plate.
Cut a tail from the green construction paper and staple it to the plate.
Use the yellow scraps that you cut off the plate to add as spikes to the tail.
Draw on a face.
HANDPRINT DINOSAUR
Materials:
Poster or large construction paper
Green, red and black craft paint
Directions:
Paint entire palm of hand and fingers with green paint.
Keeping your fingers together, place hand on paper sideways and press down firmly.
This is the body of the dinosaur.
Make the dinosaur’s head by dipping thumb in green paint and pressing down on paper at the end of the handprint.
Add four fingerprints as legs.
Use the side of your hand to print a tail.
Add red fingerprints along the back and tail as the spikes.
Finish off with a black eye painted with your little finger.
PAPER MACHE DINOSAUR EGGS
Materials:
One balloon for each dinosaur egg
Old newspaper and/or brown paper bags
Flour-water glue (instructions below)
Your favorite color craft paints
Small plastic dinosaurs
Markers
Directions:
Make thin glue from flour and water. Mix 1 cup of flour into 1 cup of water until the mixture is thin and runny. Stir into 4 cups of boiling water. Simmer for about 3 minutes, and then allow to cool.
Tear strips of newspaper and/or brown paper bag. Strips should be about 1 inch wide.
Place one plastic dinosaur inside each balloon before blowing up.
Blow up a balloon and knot closed.
Dip each strip of paper in the flour glue and wrap around the balloon. Have at least two layers surrounding the balloon. Let it dry thoroughly after each layer.
When dinosaur egg is dry, pop and remove the balloon from inside the egg.
After the dinosaur egg is completely dry, decorate with paint or markers.
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