Dinosaur Theme Toddler Activities
By LAURIN BRAINARD Updated June 26, 2024
When I think back on our childhood favorites, dinosaurs are always top of the list! This theme is one of our absolute favorites and I can’t wait to share all about it with you!!
Included Activities in this Dinosaur Toddlers Theme
In this post, I’m sharing 5 of my favorite types of dinosaur toddler activities:
- Dinosaur Sensory Bins
- Dinosaur Art Activities
- Dinosaur Fine Motor Activities
- Dinosaur Math Activity
- Dinosaur Gross Motor Activities
Interested in downloading these dinosaur activities that you can print and use right away? Click on the image or button below to check them out in my TpT shop!
Dinosaur Sensory Bins for Toddlers
Nothing is better for kicking off a new toddler theme than a sensory bin! A sensory bin for toddlers quickly engages multiple senses all at once to help our little ones get right to learning.
For this sensory bin you can use colored rice, beans, or even some pasta. Then, just place the cards into the bin and let your child explore. Then, your little one can get right to work finding the matching puzzle pieces to put together each dinosaur while working on the letter D!
For this next sensory bin, you can use sand to bury the bones and allow your child to be a paleontologist (and teach them a new big word!). Conner spent so much time using his tweezers to dig up the bones and he used a paintbrush to carefully dust them off again and again! This quick and easy sensory bin was extremely engaging while putting his fine motor skills to work. Win-win!
Dinosaur Art Activities for Toddlers
We had so much fun with the art activities this week! We started our unit with the D is for Dinosaur coloring page. This is a great opportunity to let your child express creativity by using different colors and it encourages them to work on their ability to color in the lines.
Dino feet painting was a HUGE hit with my son, Conner. Who doesn’t love to use toys and paint at the same time?!? To set up this activity, just give your child the printable worksheet, a couple small dinosaurs and some liquid paint on a plate. Let your little one explore with the paint and watch them go! This activity really allows parents and teachers to encourage art as a process instead of a product.
Dinosaur Fine Motor Activities for Toddlers
The development of fine motor skills in early childhood is truly the foundation for enhancing important lifelong skills. For our first activity, we used tweezers to place colorful pom poms on the dinosaurs. Using tweezers really helps to build strong muscles in their tiny hands!
For another activity, we used clothespins to place on each spike of the dinosaur. This really challenges the pincer grasp while working on one-to-one correspondence. We had so much fun with this activity! Clothespins may be a utensil your child is not familiar with, but you likely have some of these laying around the house!
I loved watching the focus my son had during this lacing activity. It kept him amused while working on his hand-eye coordination.
Learn even more about fine motor skills here: What are Fine Motor Skills?
Dinosaur Math Activity
How fun are these Dino Math Cards? We love working on counting and number recognition so these were a huge hit. It also gave us the opportunity to work on colors. You can use pom poms to color match or even grab some super cute dinosaur counters!
Dinosaur Gross Motor Activities
It’s time to brush up on those dinosaur names and get moving! Your little ones will have so much fun pretending to be all the different dinosaurs. Keep some water close by, because we were definitely out of breath by the end of it! These dinosaur cards are an excellent way to get those little bodies moving either at home or in the classroom!
Everything you need for a week of Dinosaur Themed Toddler Activities:
I hope you found some great ideas to use at home with your little ones! If you want to make teaching your toddler EASY this week, then check out my Dinosaur Toddler School Unit for 5 complete lesson plans and all the printables you need to go with them!
If you are looking for even more toddler learning fun for you and your little ones, then check out my Complete Toddler School Curriculum Bundle for all the plans and printables you need for an entire year of learning!
I hope you enjoy every minute of playing and learning with your little ones this week!
Check out how these activities fit into our year long toddler learning plan in our FREE Toddler Curriculum Map:
This post may contain Amazon affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase through one of my affiliate links, which helps to support The Primary Brain blog. As always, I only recommend products that I love and all ideas shared are my own.
Written on January 8th, 2021 by Laurin Brainard