DINOSAUR CRAFTS & ACTIVITIES
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Dinosaur Crafts
These Dinosaur Crafts and Activities are great fun for parties, school projects or decorating your bedroom - let us know what you think of them.
Notes about craft materials:
Papier-mache requires newspaper plus either wallpaper paste or PVA glue.
Paint may be poster paint or emulsion paint ('tester pots' are available for small areas). Acrylic paint is useful for the many colours available. Although emulsion paint and acrylic paint are water-based, they are permanent after they have dried, so clothing needs to be protected.
'FOSSIL EXCAVATION' ACTIVITY
This is an edible activity, so please visit the
Dinosaur Party Food page for details.
'FOSSIL PLASTER CASTS'
If you are making fossil plaster casts as a party activity, do them at the start of your party, to give the plaster time to set.
Materials Required:
- Fossil - real or a model fossil you have made.
- Container full of damp sand (several inches bigger, all round, than your fossil)
- Plaster of paris powder
- Jug
- Water
How to make Plaster 'Fossil' Casts:
- Pack the container with damp sand and smooth it over.
- Press your fossil, good side down, into the damp firm sand, until it is level with the surface of the sand.
- Put dry plaster of paris powder into a jug and gradually add water, stirring it as you go until it has turned into a smooth, thick cream - make sure it's not too thick to pour though!
- 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.
- When it is hard, lift out the fossil cast, brush the sand off and turn it over to admire it!
FOSSIL CANDLES
These candles have a wonderful fossil design. After your candle has burned right down, you will be left with a hollow fossil shaped stone-effect bowl.
Materials required:
- Materials as for plaster casts (except for Plaster of paris powder)
- Candle Wax (grated household candles will do)
- Cotton Candle Wicks
Adult supervision is required!
Wax catches fire easily!
How to make 'Fossil Candles':
Make these candles exactly like the Fossil Plaster casts, but substitute melted candle wax for the plaster. Cut the wicks a centimetre longer than the depth of the fossil, and dip them into liquid wax and leave them to harden before you make your candles. When the candle is half set, stick the wick into the candle, leaving about a centimetre sticking out of the top.
Note:
Ask at a craft shop for a wick which is the right thickness for the diameter of the candle. If the wick is too thin your candle will keep going out.
No Fossil? No Problem
The tiniest dinosaur so far discovered is 40 cm long
theropod,
'Microraptor'. That's about the size of a crow, and was probably the adult size of the Microraptor.
To make a 'Microraptor' fossil model, click to view this picture of Microraptor fossil, and copy the outline, scratching it into a block of plasticine. Then you can pour the plaster on to the plasticine to make a plaster cast, as described above.
The Smallest Complete Dinosaur Skeleton
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.
You are more likely to find (or buy) crinoids or ammonites. These fossils look like lots of ridged matchsticks. Ammonites have coiled shells rather like a snail.
DINOSAUR BONE CHOPSTICKS
Who needs a knife and fork when there are dinosaur bones to use as chopsticks! Do this activity early on in a party and use them to eat your party food later!
Materials required
- Chopsticks
- Cardboard
- Papier-mache (newspaper plus wallpaper paste or PVA glue)
- Cream coloured paint (poster paint or 'tester pot' of emulsion paint)
How to make Dinosaur Bone Chopsticks:
Draw knobbly 'bone end' shapes on bits of cardboard, and tape them to the tops of plain chopsticks. Leave the 'eating ends' of the chopsticks uncovered, so that they can be cleaned, and you aren't putting the papier mache and paint into your mouth. 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 a creamish colour.
BIG DINOSAUR BONES
Materials required
- Two sticks about 3 feet long (Tree branch, broomhandle, plastic water pipe, long cardboard tubes, lengths of wood. A square cross-section is OK - you can round it off with papier mache).
- toilet roll tubes
- Papier-mache (newspaper plus wallpaper paste or PVA glue)
- Toilet paper (optional)
- Cream coloured paint (poster paint or 'tester pot' of emulsion paint)
How to make Big Dinosaur Bones:
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!
ROCKY DINOSAUR LANDSCAPE
Materials required
- Blocky foam packaging (as used to protect computers and household appliances) broken into irregular pieces - or empty cardboard boxes.
- Rock-coloured paints
How to make Rocks for your Dinosaur Landscape:
- Stick a few foam blocks or boxes together and dent the edges a bit.
- Paint a base coat with household emulsion
- Stipple varied rock-like colours on top using emulsion, poster paint or acrylic paint.
- Stipple on patches 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 PAINTINGS
Paint your own dinosaur wall paintings or Invitations - there are instructions 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.
