Dinosuars, Preschool Learning Activities

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Learning at the Grocery Store

Fun & easy Ways to make this everyday chore a learning experience for both preschoolers and elementary school kids.

Both of these shows make parents cringe, but how do they change the behavior of children who watch them? A simple experiment in child psychology provides an answer, a cautionary warning about how children absorb what they watch on TV.

More Evidence That TV’s
Don’t Teach Tots

Many parents own baby Einstein tapes, but evidence continues to mount that they don’t actually teach toddlers much of anything, despite their name. This article explores recent research into the topic, and outlines differences in the ways that toddlers and preschoolers learn.

Getting Your Baby to Wear Hats, Sunglasses, or
Other Props
You hit the malls and come home with all the latest gear, determined to have more fun accessorizing than you've had in years. You pick out the perfect look, and try it on your baby. Then the first thing they do is yank whatever it is off their head. What do you do? Read and find out.

Child Safety is everyone’s
responsibility!
Child Safety Resources:
Child Safety Books & Information
Child Abduction Prevention
Fire Safety
Water Safety
Child Safety in the Home
Child Proofing Your Home
Gun Safety for Kids
Child Car Safety

Activity Listings (page 1 of 1)
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Coloring sheets/Mini coloring books
These free printable coloring sheets and mini coloring books will help you jazz up your curriculum. We have several types to choose from: Standard Coloring Sheets, Educational, Emergent Literacy, and others to help with your lesson plan.

Science / Fine Motor
DINOSAUR EGG EXCAVATION________________ View This Activity
Ages: Preschool to kindergarten

Dino venom?
As if dinosaurs weren't scary enough as it is, some new research suggests that the bites from some could have been poisonous, too, like a venomous snake. Well-preserved fossils of a feathered dinosaur that lived around 125 million years ago in what is now China appears to have had venom glands and grooved teeth to deliver it. Scientists say Sinornithosaurus (you can call him Sino dino for short) probably used its venom to quickly stun struggling prey, which were probably small- to medium-sized birds. The venom would send them into shock, making the prey easier to eat.

Related activities: Conduct a group time discussion about this concept.
Do the kids think there are any more dinosaurs who had venom? Which ones?
If you could be a venomous dinosaur, which one would you be, and how would your venom work? Would plant-eating dinosaurs have venom? If not, how come?

Blocks
PREHISTORIC FOREST _______________________ View This Activity
Ages: Preschool to Kindergarten

The dinosaur that ate T-Rex for dinner
Eighty-million years ago, during the cretaceous period, there was a dinosaur named Deinosuchus. Basically a giant crocodile, this meat-eater would have hunted other dinosaurs from the riverbank. Even large predators such as T-Rex or Albertosaurus could have been dragged to their deaths by this beast. Now that's one fierce dinosaur!

Music - Parent Preferred!
Old MacDonald Had A Dinosaur Farm ................................ View This Activity
Ages: Kids of all Ages

Things you might not know about the most famous predator of all time:
*A T-Rex's arms might have been dinky, but scientists say that those arms could curl as much as 400 pounds!

*Tyrannosaurus Rex grew to its full size in about 18 years...sort of like people.

*Paleontologist Barnum Brown excavated the first documented T-Rex in Montana in 1902

*In 2009, archaeologists discovered a newly described tyrannosaur species that was small enough to have looked humans in the eye.
Xiongguanlong baimoensis lived in what is now China between 110 million and 120 million years ago. Remains of the creature suggest that it weighed about 270 kilograms and was roughly 2 meters tall when measured at the hips. The species falls within a gap in the fossil record between the smaller, older Dilong paradoxus (T-Rex's great, great, great grandpa) and the more recent Tyrannosaurus Rex that we've all come to know and love.

-For discussion: If you found yourself looking into the eyes of a T-Rex, what would you do? What would you say?

*Yet another fossil of a T-Rex ancestor, Raptorex Kriegsteini, w--H-'" or Raptorex as scientists have dubbed it, also lived in what is now China. It lived around 125 million years ago, and looks like aT-Rex in miniature. At around one-fifth the length of T-Rex and a mere 1/100th of its overall size, this 8-foot long raptorex roamed the earth around 40 million years before Tyrannosaurus Rex enters the fossil record.

*T-Rex enjoyed its status as top predator for about 20 million years at the end of the Cretaceous, the last years of the dinosaurs.

*Don't bother me, I won't bother you: T-Rex lived at a time when another very large predator was around: Spinosaurus. Yet DNA tests on fossilized stomach contents for spinosaurus shows that Spinosaurs spent almost all their time in water, which solves the problem of how the two lived at the same time and in the same places without constantly fighting with each other: they avoided one another. Tyrannosaurus pretty much stuck to land, and spinosaurus to the water.

Language / Fine Motor
DINOSAURS THEME SPELLING WORKSHEET
Good writing practice for younger kids and spelling practice for emergent readers.
Ages: Pre-K to Second Grade

Language
DINOSAURS MISSING LETTER WORKSHEET
A phonics activity for beginning sounds.
Ages: Preschool to Kindergarten

Dino gangs
What's more frightening than a big scary dinosaur? How about a gang of big scary dinosaurs! Scientists now say that some young dinosaurs joined gangs. They discovered fossils of 20 young dinosaurs who died together 92 million years ago, after being trapped in mud in what is now Mongolia.
No parents were found anywhere at the site, which suggests that these young plant eaters were wandering alone as part of a gang of juvenile dinosaurs. Imagine that!

-For discussion: If you encountered a dinosaur gang, what would you do? If you could join a dinosaur gang, which type of dino gang would you join? Where do you think their parents were, and what do you suppose a dinosaur gang would do when out and about?

We’re adding new activities to our list every month, so if you didn’t find what you needed, be sure to check back!