Ten Little Dinosaurs by Mike Brownlow and Simon Rickerty and published by Hachette Children's is my son's favourite book. He loves lots of other books but this is the most read, tattiest book we have on our bookshelf. I have taped it back together so many times and I can almost tell the story without looking at the words. It tells the story of ten little dinosaurs who leave their mothers side and go exploring. Gradually one by one they get separated but don't worry as it has a happy ending. It's a good book for learning numbers and counting, it rhymes and has beautiful bright and busy pictures to look at. We like the different sound words that are included in it too.
Activities
Dinosaur hunt
Dinosaur sort
Dinosaur stomp
Follow the dinosaur footprints
Bubbling springs activity
Follow the trees activity
Boiled dinosaur eggs
Orange peel/cut
Popcorn and dinosaurs
Chocolate (mousse) dinosaur poo
Decorate numbers with dinosaurs
Dinosaurs on lolly sticks
Making mummy dinosaur
Dinosaur ice eggs
Outdoor
The dinosaurs meet lots of different dinosaurs outside so if you have toy dinosaurs or if you draw some dinosaurs you could hide them outside. They could be hidden in a sandpit, in amongst different plants or for a more contained activity you could hide them in a tray of flour or soil. Children love searching for things and they could pretend that they are archaeologists. For older children you could do a tick list to tick off when they have found each one. If you want to extend this activity you could get your child/children to sort the dinosaurs by colour or size. Some dinosaurs stomp so you could get your child/children to stomp round the garden like a dinosaur or you could make some big dinosaur shaped footprints for them to follow. On a rainy day your child/children could go stomping in puddles like the dinosaurs went stomping in the bubbling springs or on a hot day you could use a hose or sprinkler. Another outdoor activity is to draw some wriggly lines on the floor with chalk and your child/children could pretend that they are walking along the trees like the dinosaurs did in the book.
Food/Cooking
Boiled dinosaur eggs are a good savoury dish to go with this book and if you have a dinosaur cookie cutter then your child/children could have some dinosaur shaped toast to go with it and they could probably cut the shapes out themselves. Just make sure that the toast is nicely buttered so it is soft. I know that I have included eggs in my food/cooking activities before but they are so versatile and they are one of the few savoury things that my son will definitely eat. For something sweet and healthy there are different coloured oranges on the last page so an orange would make a good snack and your child/children could practice peeling or cutting them. If you can find some dinosaur shaped sweets on a shopping trip or online (there are some available I have checked) then these can be used in different ways. You could do a dish of popcorn with dinosaur sweets hidden in it. If you wanted something more creative one of my son's favourite pages is the poo page so you could buy some chocolate mousse (or make some if you can) and this could be the poo and then add the dinosaur sweets or some sweetie worms with some crushed biscuit on top for texture. This would be a really yummy dessert.
Indoor
As the story contains numbers you could draw the numbers on paper or card and your child/children could decorate them with the dinosaurs in the story or with some dinosaur related things from the story. Your child/children could also make ten dinosaurs and stick them on lolly sticks and then these can disappear as the story is read. you could encourage them to put the numbers on so that they can keep count as the story is read and this helps with number recognition. They could also make a big mummy dinosaur to go at the end using different art and craft materials and colours. Finally a really fun activity that takes a bit of preparation before is dinosaur eggs. If you can get hold of some little dinosaurs and some balloons then you can make frozen dinosaur eggs. First carefully put in the dinosaur in the balloon, then add water (a funnel or jug might make this part easier) and freeze. Once they are frozen you can just cut the balloon off and you have a dinosaur eggs. You can discuss solids and liquids with older children and they can slowly melt their dinosaur eggs with warm water or skid them across the floor to each other. If you want to be a bit more creative you could add food colouring to the water and then you will have coloured eggs.
Comentários