Floortime Play
Skill Check
The goal of this activity is to promote imagination and engagement with your child.
Growing My Skills
To expand play skills, give the dinosaurs different roles within play and make a 3-4 step story with the dinosaurs!
Video tape you guys playing and play it back with your child to recall and reflect on your play.
Relaxation Time
Activity: Dinosaur Book Marathon
Make a fort or wrap up in some blankets on the couch and spend time reading books about dinosaurs.
Materials:
As many dinosaur books you can find! If you do not own any some great resources online are vooks.com, epic books, and YouTube read aloud.
Skill Check
The goal of this activity is for your child to engage in quiet time play, promoting relaxation while also increasing literacy skills.
Growing My Skills
Work on literacy skills during story time! Ask your child questions during the book, have them turn the pages, and see if they can make any connections from the days crafts/activities they worked on!
Creative Time
Activity: Paper Plate Dino Craft
Materials:
Paper plates
Paint or markers
Glue stick or stapler
Skill Check
The goal of this activity is to help your child follow directions and build their creative and fine motor skills.
Growing My Skills
1. Begin by painting the front side of a paper plate with acrylic or tempera paint. Let the paint dry completely.
2. Once the paint is completely dry on your painted paper plate, turn it upside down to draw the dinosaur template on the bottom of the paper plate with a black marker.
3. Use scissors to cut out the different pieces of the template.
4. Use a stapler or glue stick to attach the different pieces of the dinosaur together. As an alternative, you could also attach the pieces together with metal bands so that your dinosaurs arms, lets and tail are movable.
Movement Time
Activity: Dinosaur Egg Transfer
Materials:
A container such as a bowl, box, basket, or bucket
Several balls or egg-like items
Blankets, pillows, couch cushions crash pad to be placed on floor
Skill Check
The goal of this week is transfer the dinosaur eggs across the lava without falling or dropping them!
Growing My Skills
Create “lava” on the floor by placing pillows, blankets, couch cushions to make the surface bumpy and uneven.
Place the dinosaur eggs (balls or any other egg-like items) on one side of the lava and a dinosaur (can use any stuffed animal with your imagination!) on the other side of the lava.
Put an egg into your container/basket, hold the container with both hands, then walk across the bumpy hot lava trying to keep your balance.
Mealtime
Activity: Dirt, Worms and Dinosaur Desert
Materials:
Chocolate pudding
Crushed Oreos
Dried fruit (ex: raisins, pineapple, apricot)
Nuts
Candies or candy rocks (optional)
Toy dinosaurs (optional).
Kitchen utensils: mixing bowls, spoons, refrigerator, cups for serving.
Skill Check
The goal of this activity is to provide a dinosaur themed dessert, offer an opportunity to try a new kind of dried fruit and expand variety!
Growing My Skills
Wash hands, prepare pudding mixture and refrigerate.
Prepare the dirt “layers” by scooping 2 inches of pudding into serving container, cover with crushed Oreos or other ingredients, cover with another layer of pudding, cover with more ingredients and top with pudding and Oreos.
Dig for the new ingredients and see if your child will sample them!
Language Time
Activity: How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight by Jane Yolen
Enjoy this fun, silly, and pragmatic language driven book with your child in order to target expressive and receptive language skills! After, reenact the book, pretending to be dinosaurs, utilizing appropriate pragmatic language to complete activities of daily living (e.g., getting ready for bed, brushing teeth, getting dressed, etc.). Take turns being the dinosaur, and identify whether the language was “thumbs up” and pragmatically appropriate, or “thumbs down” and needs some work.
Materials:
“How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight” book or audio
Functional activity items around home (e.g., pajamas, toothbrush)
Skill Check
The goal of this activity is to work on your child’s pragmatic language skills while completing activities of daily living, such as use of appropriate requesting, terminating, and commenting.
Expanding Skills
Work on receptive language skills by following 1-2 step directions, based on your child’s language level (e.g., put toothpaste in drawer and then turn off the light).
Expand this pragmatic language skill building and incorporate siblings or other family members.
Challenge your child’s expressive language skills and have them use language to explain why one of the “dinosaurs'” exchanges was not appropriate.
