Week #2 – Dinosaurs & Eggs
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Download and print the activity calendar for Week #2 from the pink button below! Hanging the calendar outline on the refrigerator (I use cute washi tape to hang things on the fridge!) makes it easy to stay on track!
Day 1
Watercolor Dinosaurs: Read a dinosaur book (if you have one) and then draw a detailed dinosaur picture using a Sharpie. Yes, a Sharpie! My 3’s used to draw with Sharpie all of the time. Have your preschooler stand up to draw, so there is less of a chance of getting any marker on clothing. Put a mat on the table under the paper to stop the Sharpie from bleeding through on to the table. Use a smock or apron if needed. Draw a detailed dinosaur, but don’t color it in. Use watercolor paints to paint the dinosaur drawing created with the Sharpie. The black lines will remain in place while painting with watercolors. Encourage lots of different colors to make the dinosaur drawing really pop. Have your preschooler tell the story about the drawing.
Dino Stomp: Print the dinosaur stomp page and cut out the footprints. Print as many pages as needed for the activity — using 10 footprints would be a good number to work with. Add one number 1-10 on each footprint. Spread them around the floor. Start with the numbers in order placed in a big circle. Play music while your preschooler travels (jumps, tip toes, stomps, etc.) from number to number. Stop the music, freeze, and identify the number. After mastering that part of the activity, rearrange the numbers out of order around the floor. Have your preschooler move and stomp in number order from 1-10 through the numbers. For an extra challenge, travel backwards through the numbers. Play a different way and have your preschooler stomp the number of times on each footprint according to the number written on it.
Mini Egg Drop: Gather beads, small dried beans, or small candies to use as mini dinosaur eggs. Put them on a tray or in a bowl. Find an empty glass jar, bowl or drinking glass to use and put it on the tray. Using kid-friendly squeezers or any tweezer or small tongs that you have at home. Squeeze one dinosaur egg at a time and drop it into the jar. Keep going until all of the dinosaur eggs are in the jar. Add number cards to the activity to use to pick up that many dinosaur eggs and drop them in the jar. See an example here.
Day 2
Dinosaur Stamping: Draw big bubble letters of the word DINO or DINOSAUR on paper. Writing each letter on a different piece of paper would encourage more time spent filling the letters with stamps. Spread the letters out on the table or floor. Use letter stamps to stamp the matching letters on to each letter in the word. To make the activity more successful, pull out only the letters needed from the set of stamps. If you don’t have letter stamps, use letter stickers, have your preschooler write the matching letter on the letters in the word, or print out multiple letters from the computer and cut them out for your preschooler to glue on.
Volcano Cover Up: Print the printable volcano cover up page. Gather small paper cups (like the ones you use to brush your teeth). Add numbers to the circles. Write numbers on the bottom of the paper cups. The paper cups are the pretend volcanos. The object is to cover up the numbers on the paper with the matching volcano cups. Change up the game by writing a simple addition sentence on the cup OR having your preschooler cover the number that comes after the number on the cup. Print a few copies of the printable page to change up the game.
Play Dough Egg Smashing: Create as many play dough balls as possible. Working together to do this with your preschooler could be the first step of the activity. Put all of the play dough balls (the pretend dinosaur eggs) on a tray. Make small number cards using numbers that need practice, probably under 10 unless there are a lot of eggs. Pick a number and it’s time to smash the eggs! Smash the correct number of play dough dinosaur eggs with a toy hammer or your hand. Count out loud while smashing the play dough. Pick another number and play again!
Day 3
Egg Hunt: Cut out ovals (paper dinosaur eggs) out of paper. Write one letter of the alphabet on each dinosaur egg and hang them on the wall around the room. Using a paper and clipboard, walk around the room hunting for all of the letters on the dinosaur eggs. Write down each letter that is found on the paper. Another option is to write the letters on the paper before giving it to your preschooler and then color or cross off each letter as its found.
Dinosaur Flip & Color: Print the dinosaur flip & color and find a deck of cards. Take the numbers 2-10 out of the deck and put them in a pile. Flip the top card and identify the number. If the number is not able to be identified, count the hearts/diamonds/spades/clubs in the middle of the card. Find the matching number on the page and color it in. Flip another card and color again.
Fill the Nest: Use plastic Easter eggs as dinosaur eggs. Scatter the eggs around the room. Place a cardboard box or plastic bin dinosaur nest in the middle of the room. Using small shovels or large ladles or spoons, scoop up the eggs and run them over the the nest to save them! Keep scooping and dumping until all of the dinosaurs eggs are safely back in the nest. If the nest is big enough, your preschooler can act like the dinosaur and sit in the box with the eggs too!
Day 4
Magnet Match: Find all the plastic Easter eggs you have in your house or stored in your garage. You will also need letter magnets for this activity. Using a Sharpie (or just tape a paper on the egg), write a letter of the alphabet on the plastic egg. Depending on the learning level of your preschooler and how many plastic eggs you own, use all 26 letters or just the letters in your preschooler’s name. Toss the plastic eggs in a bin or basket. Lay all of the letter magnets on a tray or table. Choose one egg, identify the letter on it, and find the matching egg. Open the plastic egg, put the matching letter magnet inside, and click it closed. Keep matching up eggs and letters until they are all matched up.
Dinosaur Shape Sort: Print the shape dinosaur pages on colored paper. Cut the pages in half. Spread the shape dinosaurs out on the floor. Identify the shapes on the dinosaurs. Now look around the house for smaller items that are those shapes. Bring the item to the shape dinosaur and set it on the card. Gather as many items as possible that are the shapes included on the cards. During this activity do not worry if the item is a 3D shape instead of the 2D shape shown on the card.
Dinosaur Scrub: Fill a small bin, water table, kitchen sink, or even the bathtub with soapy water. Add toy dinosaurs to the water. Grab and old toothbrush, squirt a little soap on it, and scrub those dirty dinosaurs! If you do not own toy dinosaurs, use any small plastic toy that can get wet.
Day 5
A Pet Dinosaur: Pretend you have a pet dinosaur. Draw a picture with detail about what you and your pet dinosaur like to do for fun. Encourage lots of colors and drawings that resemble real life colors. This means that if you are drawing yourself, you use brown to color your hair if your hair is brown instead of coloring the entire picture orange. After the drawing is complete, have your preschooler recite the story about the picture. Type the words to the story as they are being told and print it out. Attach the story to the picture!
Hide the Dinos: Draw a few quick dinosaurs on paper. Do not worry about how they look! Hide each dinosaur around the room. Make sure they are all out of view. Give directions using positional and directional words as clues double checking that your preschooler is responding correctly. Also use “hot” and “cold” as clues to add a little more fun to the game. Find all of the dinosaurs and then switch up how the game is played! For more of a challenge, have your preschooler ask questions to move around the room. For example, “Should I move sideways?” or “Should I crawl under the kitchen table?” to move closer and closer to the hidden dinosaur. Then switch roles and let your preschooler give you the directions to find the hidden dinosaurs!
Hot Lava Jump: Don’t touch the hot lava! Use whatever you have available as hot lava. Some ideas include red paper, red streamers, blocks, hand towels, etc. Spread the hot lava around the floor so it blocks some path to get around the room. Choose an animal movement or an action movement and move around the room making sure to avoid the hot lava on the floor by jumping over it!
Week #2 is full of Dino-tastic learning fun!
Hopefully you are loving the Preschool on the Go activities and that you are feeling more confident about setting up learning fun for your preschooler. Don’t forget, if you are ever looking for more in-depth printable options, you can check out these products:
The feedback from parents have been extremely positive about the ease of using Preschool on the Go at home. Please email with any questions!
Grab the printable outline for the week from the pink button!
Hang it on your refrigerator so you can glance up at it to see what is planned each day. Keep the digital copy available to quickly click to access this page at any point for details about the activities.
You can access all of the Preschool on the Go activities from the main page!
Email me at nicole@modernpreschool.com if you need to!
If you read my email, you also know that I’m uploading a dinosaur emergent reader for you to use!