Dino Fun!

Everyone who works with children in a library know that one of the most popular questions you will be asked is "Where are the dinosaur books?" It's really easy to turn this interest into a great program for preschoolers.

A few years ago, my friend Donna gave her daughter a dinosaur themed birthday party. One of the activities the kids did, was to put on dinosaur feet and do an egg race (not a real egg!) To make the dinosaur feet, she used cereal boxes with big feet cut out from posterboard. This month's Family Fun has the same idea, but uses tissue boxes.  So I snagged the idea and had the kids walk like the dinosaurs once did. A suggestion if you are going to try this in your library- do not have children try and walk around in these dinosaur feet on carpeted floor- they will only slide. It is best to do this activity on concrete or tiled floor.

Another aspect of the program was to have children go on a dinosaur egg hunt. After Easter last year, I bought a whole bunch of those plastic eggs on clearance. I also bought some plastic dinosaurs at our local dollar store. I stuffed a dinosaur in each egg, and then made a batch of playdoh to cover the eggs. OK- I didn't do the stuffing and covering- that's what teen volunteers are for! Of course, this required some prep, so we did this the week before the program.

 The day of the program, we read some stories, walked in our dinosaur feet, and went on the egg hunt. Each child could then crack open their egg to find a dinosaur to take home. They each then made a dinosaur puppet (on a craft stick!) to take home.