This cute activity was from my favorite place to find inspiration for just about everything, Pinterest! That’s how I found this idea to make this dinosaur fossil activity for my own boys. We had the ingredients to make the “taste safe” play-doh (Only 3 ingredients) and the dinosaurs to go with it! Check out my “Taste Safe” Play-Doh Post to see how to make this. My toddler had a blast pressing down dinosaurs and seeing them leave a print.
What Is The Point Of This Activity?
Finding activities gets a little easier each day as my 2-year-old is maturing and interested in more challenging activities. Motions such as pressing and rolling out smaller amounts of dough are working on his fine motor skills and patience has he peals the dinosaur off carefully from the dough. I like to find areas of development to boost in my children’s activities. Sensory play is majorly encouraged in our house.
List Of Things Your Child May Focus On While Doing This Activity
- Senses (Smell + Touch + Sight + Taste) Yes it’s okay to taste this play-doh, and children naturally taste to learn. You can add spices to your play-doh for smell as well. Textures of the play-doh and sight of the dinosaur prints enhance their sight and touch.
- Imagination Dinosaurs and play-doh, what more do you need to come up with endless ideas for playtime. Kids are so creative and letting them express themselves through play in developing their self-esteem even as a toddler.
- Social Skills If you and your child are sitting down together for this activity or your child is with more kids, they are working together and communicating.
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Why Sensory Play?
Sensory activities are great for learning and even though some may think they aren’t learning much they truly are. Kids’ minds are like sponges and the first kinds of activities I like to introduce at an early age are sensory play. That is how babies and toddlers learn, is through their senses.
How Do I Make Taste-Safe Play-Doh
Using the “taste-safe” play-doh recipe here, you can use these to form the fossils that you will later make bake in the oven. After your child is done playing with the play-dough, form flat circles with the dough and have your child press down the dinosaur on to the play-doh to form the fossil.
We baked the fossils in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes and used the fossils in a later activity. Re-purposing materials and anything around the house can be used for fun activities. This play-doh recipe is the perfect re-purpose material and I’ve done three activities so far with just this one recipe.
I hope you and your kids have just as much fun as we did with this dinosaur fossil activity. Go ahead and pin this on Pinterest for later or share it on Facebook! Thank you for your support and I hope to continue to inspire you and your children! Remember to also subscribe by email to get updates on new fun and exciting learning activities for babies and toddlers.
Instructions/Materials for Dinosaur Fossils
Materials:
- “Taste-Safe” Play-Dough
- Dinosaur Figures
- Parchment Paper
- Cookie Sheet Pan
Instructions:
- Make your play-dough
- Set oven to 350 degrees
- After you’re done playing with play-dough and have made your fossils, place fossils on parchment paper on a flat pan and bake for 45 minutes.
- Place cooled fossils in a sensory bin right away for another fun activity, or store in a plastic bag for later!
