26 Feb How to Make a Paper Plate into a Dinosaur

We’ve been learning about dinosaurs for the past couple of weeks. We went on a field trip to visit a local nature preserve that had a display of animatronic, life-sized dinosaurs, which needless to say completely captivated the imagination of my children and we’ve been discussing these animals ever since!

How cool are these? I mean, I was kind of fascinated, too! These dinosaurs moved, glared at you, roared, and even sprayed venom (maybe it was just water, but the kids were pretty sure it was poisonous) at us. We even had the opportunity to climb on them and check out their teeth!

How To Make A Paper Plate Into A Dinosaur

Of course, any time we learn about something, we have to incorporate something artsy and crafty into it. Clark and Luci love our little art classes (I do too!) and it’s a fun way to learn and remember new things.

Today we decided to make a couple of dinosaurs just like we saw at the nature preserve, using paper plates! This is a very simple craft that can be made by children of any age, including a preschooler. Clark enjoyed creating his dinosaur just as much as Luci did.

What you will need:

• Paper plate
• Scissors
• Glue
• Construction paper
• Paint

We started by cutting a paper plate in half. One half was to be the dinosaur’s body and on the other half, I drew the dinosaur’s head and tail for the children to cut out. We also included the dinosaur’s legs and spikes, as insisted upon by Luci.

Using acrylic paints, we painted all of the dinosaur parts in a single color. The creativity comes later, once the paint is dried. Try explaining that to two kids, desperate to paint polka dots and hearts on dinosaurs!

Once the paint had dried, we glued the head, tail and legs onto the dinosaur body, then we glued the body onto the construction paper. NOW, it’s time to put on the finishing touches! Clark painted on hearts and Luci painted a blue rainbow with blue polka-dots.

No scene is complete without clouds in the sky, so we pulled apart some cotton balls and glued them on to the construction paper.

And here are our delightful dinosaurs. Naturally, they are SO BIG that they could not fit onto the construction paper! But what do you expect from a dinosaur?!

Don’t miss more fun with dinosaurs! Here’s How to Make Dinosaur Egg Bath Bombs for your kids!