I was so excited for dinosaur week! T LOVES dinosaurs, so I couldn't wait to spend a whole week doing dinosaur themed activities. There is much more to come later in the week on sensory activities, crafts, and our weekly outing - but read more below to see what books we read and songs we sang all about dinosaurs!
Dinosaur Books
We read quite a few dinosaur books this week. I'm going to feature 3 below, because these were the most appropriate for a toddler.
In addition to the three books featured above, we also read:
- Dinosaurs?! by Lila Prap (which had fun illustrations, but was an informational text much better suited to a preschooler)
- What the Dinosaurs Did Last Night: A Very Messy Adventure by Refe and Susan Tuma (which was a fun story about dinosaur toys coming alive and getting into mischief that a preschooler or older child would appreciate far more than a toddler)
- If the Dinosaurs Came Back by Bernard Most (I'm not sure what is was about this book, but I just wasn't a big fan. The text was simple and repetitive, but almost to a point of boredom)
Dinosaur Songs
We have one dinosaur song that is a popular favorite around here, but I was worried I wouldn't find much else (I couldn't think of any off the top of my head anyway). I was definitely wrong! We found some fun songs that were easy to sing and some even incorporated gross motor activities that my newly confident walker was really excited about. This webpage was filled with fun ideas, but I'll detail our favorites below:
- "We Are the Dinosaurs" by the Laurie Berkner Band (huge hit in our house - features stomping, resting, "eating," and ROARING!)
- "The Dino-Pokey" (The hokey-pokey...but as a dinosaur!)
- Put your claws in, put your claws out, you put your claws in and your scratch them all about...you do the dino-pokey and your turn yourself around...that's what it's all about - ROAR!
- Put your feet in.....shake them all about
- Put your teeth in....chomp them all about
- Put your tail in....wag it all about
- The Dinosaur "Wheels on the Bus"
- The Pteranodon's wings went FLAP, FLAP, FLAP...FLAP, FLAP, FLAP...FLAP FLAP FLAP...The Pteranodon's wings with FLAP, FLAP, FLAP...All across the land
- The Ankylosaurs's tail went WHACK WHACK WHACK
- The Tyrannosaurus Rex went ROAR ROAR ROAR
- The Apatosaurus went MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH
- The Triceratops's horns went POKE POKE POKE
- 10 Big Dinosaurs (to the tune of 10 Little Indians)
- 1 big, 2 big, 3 big dinosaurs
- 4 big, 5 big, 6 big dinosaurs
- 7 big, 8 big, 9 big dinosaurs
- 10 big dinosaurs!
- They all lived a long, long time ago, time ago, time ago
- They all lived a long, long time ago
- We wish they would come back!