Pocket Animal Play Trays: Dino Prints

Learning Resources® Pocket Animal Playsets have so many great ways of encouraging small world play. In this series of blogs, we share a simple play tray idea for each of the animal themes: Oceanworld, Farmworld, and Dinoworld. Our final play tray is pretty roar-some, especially if your children are into dinosaurs… let’s get busy making Dino Prints!

What you need:

• Learning Resources Pocket Dinoworld Playset (available on Amazon)
• Play tray (this one is from Target)
• Play dirt or playdough (we used Play Visions Play Dirt)

The Set-Up

This is the easiest to set up. Just pour the Play Dirt into the main compartment of the tray and spread it out, so you have a nice flat layer. Then add the dinosaurs to the smaller compartments and invite your child to explore.

Exploring the Tray

The first thing my four-year-old did was to feel the Play Dirt. It is such a neat texture, and she loved squishing it with her fingers and burying her hands. Then she realized that she could push the dinosaurs into the dirt, which kicked off the fun.

One by one, she picked up the dinosaurs and pushed them down to make footprints. As she did this, she liked to count how many footprints it made and what shape the prints were. She was intrigued when she noticed that several of the dinosaurs made similar footprints.

She then wanted to experiment more by pushing the whole body down into the dirt. She got excited when she noticed that this then looked like a dino fossil! She made prints of the different dinosaurs and then compared them to see which was the biggest. She even remembered a few of their names and tried to learn some new ones.

After exploring making prints and fossils, my preschooler decided it was time to get all the dinosaurs in the dirt. They were just the right size to stand up by themselves. Once all together, she enjoyed a long open-ended play session, with the different dinosaurs interacting and playing together. She asked some great questions about why some dinosaurs had spikes and unique shaped tails, leading to discussions about adaptation and protecting themselves from predators.

If you don’t have a type of play dirt, this would also work great with play dough, or you could even dip them in paint to make the prints on some paper. It’s a really fun way to prompt discussions about the different dinosaur’s appearances and features.

Writer’s Bio

Lucy Baker is a Mom of two (4 & 8 years old) passionate about creative play and hands-on learning. She firmly believes in providing children with the opportunity to learn through play and being part of their play journey as a parent. See more of her creative play ideas and process art projects on Instagram @findthelittlemind, and over on her blog, Find the Little Mind.