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Make A Dinosaur Alphabet Maze!
- Gabrielle Fischer Posted On May 11, 2017 | Reading
Do your children love dinosaurs? Use their interest in dinos to help them practice the alphabet. Take your dinosaur toys outside to create a dinosaur alphabet maze with chalk. It's a great way to encourage an interest in learning letters and letter sounds while playing with dinosaurs.
Make a-mazing dino mazes!
Grab the latest jumbo dinosaur set and a box of chalk and head outside. You'll need a large area of sidewalk or driveway. We took our dinosaurs and chalk to a local park and found an open area between some picnic tables. The kids drew on one side while I created the alphabet mazes on the other side.
Follow the ABCs
Draw a path of letters for the dinosaurs to follow. I made the maze pretty simple for my 3 year old. I wrote the alphabet in order from A to Z in a winding path. The goal is to get your dinosaurs from A to Z. We practiced saying the letters as the dinosaurs jumped on them.
I also called out letters and letter sounds for my daughter to find. Where is the letter that makes the "t" sound? Can you find the letter that says "l"? She enjoyed flying the Pteranodon to the correct letters. This is a great way to get kids moving and learning.
Focus on one letter
Another option is to create a maze to focus on just one letter. Follow the letter As to help the dinosaurs get to the lake.
Find the baby dinosaurs
We played a maze game using the mommas and babies jumbo dinosaur set. Help the momma dinosaurs get to their babies by following the letter path. This game adds a rescue element that appealed to kids.While my 3 year old and I were working on the dinosaur alphabet mazes, my oldest son (age 7) was creating his own alphabet mazes. This was great writing practice for him. My youngest son (age 1) loved running around with the dinosaurs and saying, "roar."
More dinosaur alphabet mazes
The dinosaur alphabet fun didn't stop when we got home. I created some on paper. The new dinosaur counters are the perfect manipulative to go along with these printable maze sheets. You'll find 4 mazes that work on number recognition and sequencing, counting, even numbers, letter recognition, and alphabetical order. Move the little dinosaurs through the mazes just like we did with the jumbo dinosaurs outside. Can you help the T. rex find her nest?
Or you could use the dinosaurs to cover all of the same letter. Cover all of the letter D to help the dinosaur find a path to its food. Download the dinosaur mazes here.
What kind of learning games do you like to play with your dinosaur toys? Learning is Where We Play:
Fine Motor Fun Scavenger Hunt
Fine Motor Scavenger Hunt
There is one tool always on you: your hands! Let’s see what your kids can find that requires them to move their hands. Scavenger hunts are a great way for kids to practice problem solving and learn the value of teamwork. This hunt is great for fine motor development and building recognition of what requires hand coordination. Don’t forget this is just for fun and it’s ok if you can’t find everything!
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Be a Dinosaur Hunter With Printable Dino Sheets!
Be a dinosaur hunter! Dinosaur-loving kids will get to count and practice color recognition with two exciting printable scavenger hunts.
Click the images below to print yours out.
Kids love to play and search for hidden items. Now, you can put them both together for learning and lots of playful fun. If you’re doing this activity with younger kids, ages 3 and 4, you will need to hide the dinosaurs in plain sight.
Review the colors before you start. Look at the scavenger hunt sheet with your child to be sure your child knows which dinosaurs are which colors before you begin.
Also, tell your child that he or she will be looking for the right color to match. Meaning, children don’t need to match the species of dinosaur, just the color. (Although you can do that later your own with older kids.)
Supplies Needed:
- Cardstock or printer paper
- Mini Dino Counters
- Plastic sheet protector (optional)
Directions:
- Print out the scavenger hunt sheets. You have two options:
- PICTURES ONLY for 3- and 4- year olds
- WRITTEN NUMBERS for 5- and 6- year olds
- Gather the right number and color of dinosaurs listed on the scavenger hunt sheet.
- Hide your dinosaurs. Make sure you hide the dinosaurs in plain sight to start, especially for 3- and 4- year olds.
- Give the printable to your child.
- Have fun searching, counting, and sorting!
Keep the fun going with more dino activities
- Have your child hide the dinosaurs for you to find.
- See if your child wants to find the dinosaurs by species instead of by color.
- Sort all the dinosaurs into color groups. Count them up!
- Use the dinosaurs to pretend to play dinosaur hunter. Bury them in the sandbox and play paleontologist.
- Add in colored playing dough. See if your child can match the dinosaurs to their matching color playing dough.
- Compare which dinosaur is tallest, shortest, smallest, or biggest.
Won’t these activities for ages 3 to 6 be so engaging? Especially for dinosaur fans.
My little learner had a blast. He didn't want to stop playing dino hunter. Little did he know that he was actually practicing counting and recognizing colors!
That’s the beauty of playful learning!
Happy dino hunting!
Learning is Where We Play:
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