Two little girls recently told me that they don't like dinosaurs. I asked why and in both cases the answer was because they like fairies... huh, when did dinosaurs and fairies become mutually exclusive? Cakey likes fairies and dinosaurs, we do lots of fairy play but the dinosaur play has been dropping off lately so I thought up this fun activity.
Cakey repeatedly asks why dinosaurs are no longer alive so I thought we could have some fun experimenting with the different theories of extinction in a seriously messy way. If you hate messy play you will hate this.
I didn't tell the kids what I had planned so they were very excited...... first I got out our playdough and toy dinosaurs and asked them to create a dinosaur land on my trusty tray – green pastures, blue ocean, yellow sand, orange earth. The dinosaurs looked happy.
Next for a bit of climate change... we made some 'snow' by blending up ice. The kids took their bowls of snow and covered the dinosaurs. The dinosaurs got cold.
Now for some volcanic action... while the kids added some styrofoam volcanoes to our dinosaur land (could have just used playdough but I didn't think of that) I created a lava-like mixture of red food colouring, flour and water. Cakey poured it down the sides of the volcanoes, covering the dinosaurs underneath. The dinosaurs were buried.
Hmmm asteroid hit.... I placed a small pile of cocoa powder on the playdough and gave Cakey a ball. Boo and I stood well back as Cakey threw the ball into the cocoa to make a small cloud of brown dust to simulate an asteroid hitting the earth. This worked really well (but stay out of the way). The dinosaurs coughed.
To finish off, we flooded the dinosaurs by pouring copious amounts of water onto them. Poor dinosaurs!
This fun experiment then turned into messy play. Playdough, ice, lava, cocoa and water make for quite a mess!
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Linked to The Sunday Showcase and It's Playtime
Oh, we love the messy stuff! This looks so fun! You are so creative :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, that is kind of you.
DeleteLooks like so much fun and my little girl likes dinosaurs too!
ReplyDeleteDinosaurs are so cool, glad to hear your daughter likes them too. This activity really got Cakey interested in dinosaurs again.
DeleteHahaha, what fantastic messy fun for testing the theories - will have to try this out with my lad who is dino crazy!!
ReplyDeleteIt really was fun, the kids wanted more and more... did take a while to clean up afterwards though.
DeleteThat looks soooo much fun!! My daughter is really into dinosaurs right now and she would love this :)
ReplyDeleteI would love to hear about it if you do it.
DeleteOMG I would SO hate that but my kids would SO LOVE it!
ReplyDeleteI may be brave and do something like that when the weather is better outside.
The photos alone made me laugh so bet it would be brilliant the children having so much fun.
Yes the kids really did love it particularly the asteroid hit. Thanks for visiting.
DeleteI love this idea! The volcanoes are wonderful!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful hands on learning experience!!! Oh I LOVE a mess... this is going in my summer pin board.
ReplyDeleteLove the mess! My boys would go crazy over this! Thanks for the inspiration!
ReplyDeleteThis messy play and learning is amazing! Love the concoction of colours, textures, temperature (cold ice) and how you build the whole concept step by step!
ReplyDeleteHow fabulous, I love all the sensory play ideas involved! Our girls would think they were in dinosaur heaven getting their hands into all of that :D
ReplyDeleteAhhh! That was really cool - love the play-by-play photos! Thanks for coming by and sharing! Looking forward to pinning this1
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