Dinosaur Dig
Introduction
What other things do cowboys and cowgirls do? Brainstorm with your child about some other cowboy and cowgirl themed games you can play and create together.
Materials:
- Scissors (*to be used by an adult only)
- Pencil or Crayons
- Paper
Directions:
- Have an adult use scissors to cut a sheet of paper into eight pieces.
- Have your child write each letter in the word dinosaur. Have him write one letter on each piece of paper.
- Ask your child to tell you what sound each letter makes before he writes the letter. For a younger child draw dotted letters for your child to trace. Before he traces each letter tell him what sound each letter makes.
- When your child is done writing all of the letters have him say the alphabet while you hide the letters around your house or your yard.
- When you are done hiding them have your child look for the letters around the house or outside. As he finds letters ask him to identify what letter he has found and what sound that letter makes.
- When he has found all eight letters have him put them in the correct order so he spells the word dinosaur. Help your child to sound out each letter in the word dinosaur so he can figure out which letter comes next. For a younger child you can tell him what letter or make the sound of the letter and ask him if he can identify what letter it is by hearing the sound.
- When your child is done have him draw a dinosaur and label it.
Take it further:
- Play �Word Dig� with other rhyming words: ant; plant.
- Play �Opposites Dig� with words that are the opposite of one another like open and closed or big and little. Ask your child to come up with other words that opposites.
- Have your child write the letters in his name and hide them for him to �dig up� and find.
- Help your child to make his own dinosaur footprints. Have your child draw a footprint of a dinosaur on a piece of paper. That will act as your template for the other footprints. Make sure he draws a good sized one so he will be able to draw a letter or word inside of it. Have an adult cut out twenty-six footprints. An adult can layer five pages on top of one another and when cutting out the footprints to speed up the process. Then, have your child write each letter of the alphabet on a different foot. Finally, you and your child can place the footprints on the floor and use them in dinosaur dig. The next time you hid the letters use the footprints as trails to lead your child to the dinosaur letters.
- Mix the dinosaur footprints up and have your child put them back in the correct order starting at A and ending at Z.
Talk about it:
- Does your child have a favorite dinosaur? Which one is it? Ask him what he knows about the dinosaur. Does he know what his favorite dinosaur eats? Is it a carnivore or herbivore and does he know what that means? Read a book about dinosaurs together and compare the different dinosaurs. What makes them different? What makes them similar?
