MINI MONDAY: DINOSAUR STOMP

RAWR! Where’s the dinosaur? It’s you! Team up with your little one to create your own daring dinosaur feet, and stomp along to your favourite dinosaur song!

Materials

• Cardboard
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Paint
• Paintbrush

Directions:

• Ask your little one to place their foot on a piece of cardboard. Depending on their age, trace their foot for them, guide their hand to help them trace their foot, or ask them to trace their foot on their own (this tracing is just used as a rough guide, and does not need to be exact!)
• Repeat for the other foot
• Draw a rectangle over part of each foot. You want the rectangle to extend from just below the heel to the arch of your child’s foot, and to be slightly wider than the widest part of their foot (this will form the hole where they will insert their foot)
• Time to design your dinosaur feet! Depending on the age of your child, ask them to draw the outline of a dinosaur foot around the outline of their foot, or draw one together. As long as this outline is larger than all parts of your foot and the rectangle, it can be shaped however you like!
  • Note: The further your dinosaur foot extends past the end of your own foot, the more exaggerated your movements will need to be in order to be able to move around in them later
• Once both feet are traced, it’s time to cut them out! This step is likely best done by an adult. Ask your little one to practice their dinosaur noises to cheer you on as you cut! What do they think a dinosaur sounds like? Do all dinosaurs sound the same?
• Once the feet have been cut out, carefully insert the scissors into the middle of the rectangle and cut it out to create openings for your little one’s feet. Ask your little one to practice moving like a dinosaur during this step! How do different dinosaurs move? Do they stomp? Do they chomp? How does that look?
• Now it’s time to paint! Using whatever colour/paint desired, ask your little one to decorate their dinosaur feet. You can make your feet a solid colour or create a pattern! Apply as many coats of paint as you’d like to make your feet really stand out! (we put two coats of paint on ours)
• Once you’re finished painting, give your feet some time to dry
• Once they’re dry, put your feet on and fully transform into a dinosaur! Celebrate by dancing along to your favourite dinosaur song while wearing your feet! If you need a suggestion, we’ve got this one to get you started!

Keep the fun and learning going! Can you…

• Imagine life as a dinosaur? What do you think they did in the morning? Throughout the day? At night?
• Create your own original dinosaur dance?
• Design your very own dinosaur?

Essential Learning Experiences

Gross Motor Skills

Gross motor skills are developed when children use their larger muscles, like the ones in their arms and legs. Gross motor skills are used for all kinds of movements – like crawling, rolling, running, and jumping.

This week’s craft helps to support the development of gross motor skills by asking children to practice a variety of large, exaggerated movements (such as stomping and chomping) while wearing their dinosaur feet.

Dramatic Play

Dramatic play gives children the opportunity to step into someone else’s shoes and role-play a specific type of experience. Dramatic play helps to foster creativity, social skills, and language development.

This week’s craft helps to support dramatic play by encouraging children to take on the role of a dinosaur as they mimic dinosaur sounds and movements!

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