Dino-Land!

Dino-Land!

Today, we combined many of our favorite things for a mostly warm indoor activity (on a cold-for-the-Bay Area morning), including play-dough, a nature hunt, and dinosaurs!  First, we went out in the backyard (in our pajamas) on a search for materials for our Dino-Land.  Ben focused on collecting rocks and sticks, while the girls went searching for foliage, including leaves, flowers, and ferns.  We then came inside where we used an empty storage container for Dino-Land.  First we took some of our old homemade play-dough to create the terrain  - we included a couple water pools, a grassy area with  volcano, and a few hills and valleys.  The kids then had fun finding places for all the treasures they discovered on their nature hunt.  Ben ran back outside a couple times to fill in a few areas.  In warmer weather, I'd like to create this Dino-Land outside using water and dirt/mud instead of play-dough.  

Because Dino-Land is in a storage container, it's easy to move around from room to room depending on where the kids want to play with it.  Admittedly, the space we used is a bit small for three kids and we did have some conflict arise over which dinosaurs should be placed in which locations - and which dinosaurs couldn't be moved because they are "resting" - but I think it will provide some exploration fun for the kids over the next couple days before we have to clean-up and put everything away.

Nature hunt for materials for Dino-Land

Building Dino-Land

And, of course, we always read a lot of books about dinosaurs - wonderful non-fiction books about real dinosaurs, and many children's books featuring dinosaur characters.  There are so many out there.  Here are some of the ones we're currently enjoying:

Non-fiction:

• First Big Book of Dinosaurs
• My Big Dinosaur Book
• Big Book of Dinosaurs

Fiction:

• The Dinotrux Series by Chris Gall - our recent favorite is Dinotrux Go to School
• Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs!
• How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?

We also do a lot of coloring dinosaurs.  I know coloring books are controversial, but I think they are fine in moderation, and recommend the Dover Dinosaurs Coloring Book.  

We know there are so many other wonderfully fun activities to do with dinosaurs - we'd love to hear what everyone else has been up to!

The overpopulation of Dino-Land may lead to its extinction, but for now, everyone seems to be getting along!