Playdough Dinosaur Egg Surprise

5.28.2018


Calling all dino-fans!  Here's a fun, yet simple activity that will keep little hands busy looking for dinosaurs!  Sneak in fine motor skills while excavating playdough dinosaur eggs!

playdough dinosaur eggs excavation activity



If you've been browsing Target's party aisles lately, you may have seen these oh so cute pack of dinosaurs for $2.  

Seeing only one bag left, I snatched them up real quick!  At the time I didn't have an immediate use for them, but as I mentioned-- they were cute and $2! Ha!  

However, as I've had time to sit and stare at this pack of dinosaurs, I can see they would be great for counting, color sorting, and today's fine motor activity-- Excavating Playdough Dinosaur Eggs!!  

PlayDough Fine Motor Activity


Grab a pack of dinosaurs and have fun excavating them from playdough eggs!

Supplies:



While the kids are busy excavating, grab one of our favorite dinosaur books for storytime.

Sounds like a great morning and/or afternoon activity to me!

play dough dinosaur eggs

We've shared a fine motor playdough activity a few months ago; remember our Playdough Pumpkin? Well, our Playdough Dinosaur Eggs follow the same concept.

Simply mold playdough into an egg shape over the dinosaur.  Then, invite your child to come explore.

For a little extra suspense, I added the playdough eggs to a fake planter and asked my daughter to find what was inside-- the playdough eggs!

Encourage your child (children) to pull and squeeze, poke, and tear apart the playdough to find what is inside-- the dinosaur!

You'll find that playdough provides plenty of opportunity to strengthen all the muscles in the hand.

Play Dough Fine Motor Skills Activity

I've never really been fond of playdough-- more so because of the mess-- until I realized how much it helps getting those hand muscles all working together; those muscles are important for writing!

I also found that homemade playdough is way more manageable than store bought... not exactly sure why that is?!

I drew up little color cards for their "home," to add in some color matching fun, too.  

Play Dough Dinosaur Activity

After you've excavated all of the dinosaurs from the playdough eggs and have sorted them by color, work on rolling and flattening the dough to make dinosaur fossils by pushing them into the playdough.

It would be also be a great time to sing, "The Playdough Song" which goes like this:
"This is how we roll the dough, 
roll the dough,
roll the dough, 
this is how we roll the dough, 
when we play with playdough"
....  continue singing while changing up the action word for poke, flatten, rip, etc!
{And actually, I am not sure if the song has a name, but that's what we call it!}


making dinosaur prints in play dough

Have fun excavating, color sorting, and counting with these playdough dinosaur eggs!


play dough dinosaur fine motor skills excavation

More Fine Motor Activities:


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Comments

  1. This is an awesome idea and would have been a perfect activity when we studied dinosaurs in My Father's World K! I am pinning to my MFW K board! Thanks!

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  2. Georgina @ Craftulate10:32 AM, February 21, 2014

    We haven't got into dinosaurs yet - but maybe it's about time! Thanks for the inspiration.

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  3. What a great idea! Another excuse to head to Target this weekend!
    Cheers,
    Lisa @ welldressedpeanuts.com

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  4. Still Playing School2:12 PM, February 21, 2014

    So much fun! Great idea!

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  5. This is a cute activity for a dinosaur study!

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  6. This looks like fun! My daughter would love finding them and discovering what was inside - and I love how you added some color-matching in too!

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  7. Margaret Anne @ Natural Chow7:46 PM, February 22, 2014

    This is a great idea. It would also be a great for a dinosaur party.

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  8. What a fun activity! I haven't seen those dinos at Target, but I've been trying not to go there as I always walk out with FAR more than I went in to get. I'm pretty sure I have a set of Toob dinosaurs, though, and I think my son would enjoy this! Thanks! #BB100

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  9. School Time Snippets11:20 PM, February 22, 2014

    I just happened to spot this one bag left on the end cap in/ near the Party section; but I agree... if you don't *need* to go, don't! Ha! I always get way more than planned, too. Oops! TOOBS would work great though, too-- probably around the same size.

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  10. School Time Snippets11:21 PM, February 22, 2014

    Ha! Yes, the "Must Go to Target for...." list is always growing! hehe.

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  11. School Time Snippets11:22 PM, February 22, 2014

    Thanks, Emma! It was a fun activity : )

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  12. This is so fun. I have a pack of dinosaur Toobs, but haven't used them yet. Bo would love this. I've never heard the play dough song before! Love the color matching too.

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  13. I remember making a similar kind of dough when I was a kid. #BYB100

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  14. Wisdomgraceand2chickens11:46 PM, February 23, 2014

    Oh my gosh, what a great idea!! My daughter would LOVE this!!

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  15. Thanks for the info. This is exactly what I was looking for. I am
    currently researching this topic so I will be back... Saving Energy

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  16. Love this post! I am featuring it today as part of a round up of science activities for After School.

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  17. Heather @ Crayon Box Chronicle1:22 PM, March 05, 2014

    So fun and simple to set-up! We're big dino fans. Thank you for sharing your activity Pinned.

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  18. You can never go wrong with play dough, or dinosaurs! Thanks for sharing at Mom's Library; you were featured this week!

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