DINOSAUR CRAFTS
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Fossils |
Cave Art
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Dinosaur Party |
Dinosaur Food |
Dinosaur Crafts
These Dinosaur Crafts are great fun for parties, school projects or decorating your bedroom! Let us know what you think of them! You might like to check out the Dinosaur Party Food page too!
For the
solution to "Feeding Frenzy" activity, please click or scroll to the bottom of this page.
FOSSIL & EXCAVATION ACTIVITY
This is an edible activity, so please visit the
Dinosaur Party Food page for details.
FOSSIL PLASTER CASTS
You need either a real fossil or one you have modelled for this activity.
The tiniest dinosaur is the crow-sized (40 cm long) theropod named Microraptor. This is probably the adult size - so perhaps you could make a smaller 'young Microraptor' fossil model by drawing its outline into a block of plasticine: picture of
Microraptor fossil.
We don't know the size of a baby Microraptor, but Mussaurus ("mouse lizard"), the smallest complete dinosaur skeleton ever found, was a fossilised newly-hatched baby and was 37 cm long.
The real fossils you are more likely to find (or buy) are crinoids, which look like lots of ridged matchsticks, or ammonites which are coiled up rather like a snail.
To cast a plaster 'fossil':
- Pack a container (deeper than your fossil) with damp sand and smooth it over.
- Place your fossil, good side down, on the damp firm sand, and press it in until it is nearly level with the surface of the sand.
- Put dry plaster of paris powder into a jug and mix it to a smooth, thick but pourable cream
- Carefully lift the fossil out of its hole (without disturbing the sand).
-
Very gently pour the plaster mixture into the hole until it its level with the sand surface.
- Don't touch the plaster until it is completely set. If using this as a party activity, start early on in your party
- When it is hard, lift out the fossil cast and turn it over to admire it!
FOSSIL CANDLES
You make these exactly like the Fossil Plaster casts, except that you use melted candle wax and you have to add a wick.
Adult supervision is required!
Wax catches fire easily!
The wick needs to be the right thickness for the width of the candle (ask at the shop; if the wick is too thin your candle will keep going out). Cut the wicks longer than you think you will need, and dip them into liquid wax and leave them to harden before you make your candles. Then, when your candles are half set, you can insert them into the candle, leaving a centimetre or two sticking out of the top. When your candle has burned away all the wax you will be left with a hollow stone-effect bowl with a wonderful fossil design.
DINOSAUR BONE CHOPSTICKS
Draw knobbly 'bone end' shapes on bits of cardboard, and tape them to the tops of plain chopsticks. Build up layers of papier-mache around the shapes and the chopstick tops until they look the right shape. Then dry them out and paint it a creamish colour.
BIG DINOSAUR BONES
Find two sticks about 3 feet long. Tape toilet roll tubes to each end as basis for knobbles. Dent them at the ends to give a knobbly effect. Cover the whole 'bone' with several layers of papier mache to hold it together and to give it a better bone shape. The last layer could be white toilet paper (for a textured finish) or you could paint the 'bone' with pale coloured household emulsion paint. Roll it around in the garden to make it nicely grubby!
Suitable 'sticks' to use base for bones:
Broomhandle, plastic water pipe, long cardboard tubes, lengths of wood (a square cross-section is OK - you can round it off with papier mache).
ROCKS
The blocky foam packaging around computers etc. makes good rocks
Break it into irregular pieces, stick a few together and crumble the edges a bit.
Paint a base coat with household emulsion, then stipple different rock-like colours on top using emulsion, poster paint or acrylic paint. You could stipple on patchden of lichen colours too. (To 'stipple', dab the brush bristles vertically up and down on the surface you are painting to give a slightly dotty appearance.)
DINOSAUR CAVE PAINTING
Try using the theme of
Cave Painting for Invitations and Decorations - there are lots of ideas on the
Cave Painting page.
We'd love to see your 'cave-art' creations, so please send them in by email if you have access to a scanner (or send a photo if you prefer) and we'll get as many as we can up on our gallery.
FEEDING FRENZY CHALLENGE - THE SOLUTION
The team members must
cooperate to feed
each other. It is totally impossible to get food into your own mouth using a rigid tool which is longer that your own arm.
