Lessons & Classroom Games for Teachers
One of the most commonly used preschool themes is dinosaurs, since preschoolers love learning about the giant beasts that roamed the earth thousands of years ago. The possibilities of the dinosaur preschool theme are nearly endless, involving a variety of crafts and games. The dinosaur preschool theme also allows the instructor the chance to introduce concepts like animals, diet, and archeology.
The Me-O-Saurus and Shoeceratops crafts
For the dinosaur preschool theme, try one of these fun and creative art projects. First, here's a craft called Me-O-Saurus where the children get to imagine what they might look like as a dinosaur. This craft requires large sheets of white paper, markers and crayons, and any other arts and crafts materials on hand in the classroom. To begin, have each child lie down on the large sheet of paper and trace their outline on the paper.
Next, the children are to imagine what they might look like as a dinosaur and decorate their paper outline accordingly with markers, crayons and other art materials. After the decoration is complete, cut out each dinosaur child and put them up on the wall for display.
Or, instead of drawing an outline of each child, they can draw an outline of their shoe on a piece of construction paper and decorate it to look like a triceratops. They can use markers, paint, crayons, or any other art materials to adorn their shoeceratops.
Another fun dinosaur craft is this one called Dinosaur Tooth Necklace. For this craft, give each child a small amount of modeling clay and have them form tooth shapes from the clay. Make sure they use a large safety pin or thin knitting needle to poke a hole through the top of each tooth.
Give the clay teeth a few days to dry, and once they have dried string the teeth on a piece of yarn or string to form a dinosaur tooth necklace, and let the children wear their necklaces with pride.
Dino Tag and Archeological Dig
Next, here are some fun games that can be played when exploring the dinosaur theme. Try this variation on tag called Tyrannosaurus Rex tag. One player is named the Tyrannosaurus Rex, and everyone else is a plant-eater. As the Tyrannosaurus Rex chases after the plant-eaters, each time a plant-eater is caught, they sit down. Once all the plant-eaters have been tagged, the last one to have been tagged becomes the new Tyrannosaurus Rex and the game begins again.
Or, try this other variation of Tag called Dinosaur Tag. The rules are similar to TV Tag: one player is "It", and they chase after the other players. When a player is tagged, they call out the name of a dinosaur that hasn't already been called to save themselves from being sent to the tar pit, which is an area to the side of the playing area. Once all the players are in the tar pit, the last one to arrive becomes "It" and the game begins again.
Children can pretend to be archeologists with this activity called Dinosaur Dig. Bury small plastic dinosaurs or dinosaur eggs in the sandbox and give the child a small shovel to dig for dinosaurs. After all the dinosaurs and eggs have been found, have the child bury them again for the next child to discover.
These are just a few of the many ideas you can use to teach your dinosaur preschool theme.
Mary Robinson has been teaching preschool for well over a decade. You can get instant access to her preschool activities, crafts, and lesson plans by visiting her website:
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