National Dinosaur Day!
Celebrate National Dinosaur Day
Today, 15th May, is National Dinosaur Day. This is a day of celebration and appreciation of dinosaurs and natural history. This day is the perfect opportunity for children to learn more about dinosaurs and history, through trying out fun activities!
Some dinosaur facts…
- Dinosaurs roamed the earth billions of years ago, it’s believed dinosaurs became extinct over 65 million years ago.
- It’s believed that there were over 700 different species of dinosaurs.
- Dinosaurs ruled the earth for 150 million years.
- There are descendants of dinosaurs on earth today, such as crocodiles, snakes and lizards.
- No one knows the average life span of a dinosaur, but scientists suggest some dinosaurs lived for over 200 years.
If your children want to find out more about dinosaurs, the National Geographic website has lots of resources and information for kids. Here is a dinosaur craft activity you could do at home with your kids
Paper plate dinosaur
This is a craft activity that involves making your own dinosaurs out of a paper plate and a cardboard roll. You will need
- Paper plate
- Kitchen/toilet roll
- Paint/ pencils/ stickers
- Sellotape
How to make your paper plate dinosaur
- Decorate your paper plate with paint, make it as colourful as you like! Try adding some patterns. You could try doing some finger painting to make dots on the paper plate. This will be the body of your dinosaur.
- Next, cut the paper plate in half. Leave one half to the side. With the other half of the paper plate, cut out a dinosaur head and tail. You can trace this out with pencil before you cut out. You can add details like eyes and a mouth using a pen or pencil.
- Once the head and tail are cut out, use sellotape to tape them onto the other half of the paper plate.
- Next, cut the cardboard roll in half. Then, use scissors to make slits in one end of both halves of the roll. These are the dinosaur’s legs, and will be where the paper plate slides in.
- Slide the finished, decorated paper plate into the slits in the cardboard roll. Then, the dinosaur is finished! The dinosaur should be sturdy enough to play with.
