Need to keep your young children occupied this summer? Well, most kids love dinosaurs. Here are some great dinosaur books with some activities you and your children will love!

“Dinosaurs” That Swam and Flew. By David C. Knight

1. Great outdoor activity-get a basin full of water and a small tree or bush. Trace and make sponge dinosaurs from the book. Using sponge dinosaurs, swim, or fly each one inTO their habitat. (water, flying-onto a tree)

2. Tell students to use the names of dinosaurs to create new names for foods (Rhamphorhynchus raisins, Plesiosaurus pizza, Apatasaurus asparagus). Then have them write a menu for lunch using these “new foods”. Allow time for students to share menus. Plan a Dinosaur lunch for the entire class. Have students sign-up to bring some of the “new foods” from home.

3. Everyone sings this song, one child acts as the dinosaur, and all the others do the moving away actions.

(tune: I Wish I Were an Oscar Meyer Wiener)

Oh I want to be a giant grumpy Dino,
That is what I really want to be!
For if I were a giant grumpy Dino,
Everyone would run away from me. . .
Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

Additional Verses:
jump away from me
crawl away from me swims away from me
flies away from me
 
Dinosaurs and Their Young by Russell Freedman
Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones by Byron Barton

1. Dino egg match-From a dollar store buy adult size dinosaurs, plastic eggs, and tiny dinosaurs. Put the tiny dinosaurs into the plastic eggs. Place the adults in a line with their names displayed. Each child opens an egg and matches it to its mother. Between each turn name all the dinosaurs.

2. Make a movie of the four stages of a dinosaur’s existence (egg, adult, dig up bones, put them in a museum).

Dinosaurs by Kathleen Daly

1. Have students take on the role of a particular dinosaur. If possible, mime the dinosaur, in addition to giving out one clue at a time: I weigh __________. I am __________ tall. I eat __________ . Allow four clues. If students haven’t guessed the dinosaur after four guesses, have the dinosaur-student provide the answer.

2. Provide students with plastic dinosaur figures, clay, dinosaur model sets, and so on. As a class, create a display or diorama that depicts a prehistoric time when dinosaurs roamed the world.

If the Dinosaurs Came Back by Bernard Most

1. Cut out a dinosaur and, using it as a pattern, make pages and construction paper covers for student dinosaur books. Allow students to use these materials to write their own stories about “if dinosaurs came back.” Provide time for the students to share their stories.

2. Write a letter to one of the dinosaurs in the story saying why you would like it to come back or why you wouldn’t.

3. List some dinosaurs and their lengths on the chalkboard. To help students understand how long the different dinosaurs were, measure their exact lengths with a ball of yarn (in which you have previously tied knots every 5 feet). Count by fives as the yarn is unrolled. Use a meter stick to convert these lengths to meters.

Dinosaur Dig by Kathryn Lasky

1. Have students become paleontologists (a scientist who specializes in finding and studying ancient fossil remains) by bringing clean chicken bones to school. Place each bone in wet, packed sand to make an imprint. Remove the bone and pour plaster of Paris into the imprint (or mold). Let it harden and then remove it from the sand. Have students label and display their fossils.

2. Just hide (chicken) “dinosaur” bones in a sandbox and give students shovels and brushes to find the bones.

Danny and the Dinosaurs by Syd Hoff
This fantasy book describes the joys of having a dinosaur as a pet.

1. Ask students to pretend they have a dinosaur like Danny’s and it gets lost. Have each student create a reward poster to get his or her dinosaur back.

2. Tell students to create their own list of activities for their pet dinosaur to do. Then ask them to illustrate their pet dinosaurs. Compile the illustrations and lists into a booklet, “Our Dinosaur Pet.” Then, bind the cards together. Show the stack as a class project to parents. Print out copies of the stack, one for each child.

3. Have students conduct a survey among their classmates and neighbors, asking: “If you had a dinosaur at home, what one job or task would you like it to do?” Have students compile the responses into a list by listing the person’s name and what they’d like the dinosaur to do. Duplicate this list and give each participant a copy.

4. Ask students to make a list of the places in their neighborhood they might hide a dinosaur. Allow time for them to share and discuss their lists of hiding places.

Related Literature
Andrews, Roy Chapman. All About Dinosaurs, illustrated by Thomas W. Voter. Random House, 1953.

Branley, Franklin M. Dinosaurs, Asteroids, and Superstars: Why the Dinosaurs Disappeared. Illustrated by Jean Sallinger. Thomas Y. Crowel, 1982.

Carrick, Carol. What happened to Patrick’s Dinosaur. Clarion, 1986.

Carroll, Susan. How Big Is a Brachiosaurus? Platt & Monk, 1986.

Parish, Peggy. Dinosaur Time. Illustrated by Arnold Lobel. Harper & Row, 1974.

Quinn, Kayne, and Jan Hutchings. Science Adventures: Dinosaurs. Price/Stern/Sloan, 1987.

Rowe, Erna. Giant Dinosaurs. Illustrated by Merle Smith. Scholastic, 1973.