Here at The Stay-at-Home Teacher, it’s no secret that we LOVE including tons of seasonal and holiday themes in our Preschool curriculum. But sometimes you need a tried and true “any time” theme, and that’s exactly what our Dinosaur Preschool theme is! And let me tell you – it does not disappoint! This dinosaur Preschool theme is packed with Math, Literacy and Fine Motors practice PLUS adorable little dinosaur friends!
Whether you’re teaching in the classroom or at home, you’ll love how easy it is to bring this festive theme to life without the overwhelm of planning it all yourself. Below you’ll find tons of activities and tips!
Table of Contents – CLICK to jump ahead!
Dinosaur Theme Sensory Bin
One of the easiest ways to add excitement and hands-on learning to your preschool week is with a themed sensory bin. So many of the activities in our Dinosaur Preschool pack incorporate a sensory bin, so it’s best to knock out the preparation early on! Our kinetic sand sensory bin is always a hit—it’s simple to put together and offers tons of playful learning opportunities! Here’s how I like to set ours up!
FIRST, gather your materials. I like to use a plastic storage bin with a lid so I can cover and store the bin once it’s prepared. Choose your filler, like the brown kinetic sand we use in ours. There are all sorts of colors of kinetic sand, but we LOVE using the brown one over and over. It’s perfect for everything from beach to dinosaurs! Once you’ve chosen your filler, fill your storage bin as much as you feel comfortable with (knowing each individual child can handle working with different amounts of materials).
NEXT, grab some extra dinosaur themed items like plastic dinosaurs, plants, digging tools, “colorful pompoms, “bone” printables from our Dinosaur pack, etc. These items make the perfect backdrop for the printable items in our dinosaur preschool activities! Scatter them throughout your sensory bin filler and watch the theme really come to life!
FINALLY, choose a space that you feel comfortable using the sensory bin with your child. I tuck ours away in our homeschool room with the rest of our Preschool manipulatives, and keep our sensory bin blanket nearby for when it’s time to get to work. The rule with our bins – everything stays on the blanket! This makes clean up SO much easier.
READY, SET, PLAY!!! When your sensory bin is not being used for the printable activities in our Dinosaur Preschool theme, allow children to explore freely! Watch them scoop, pour, dig, and more! I love taking our bin our when I need a little extra quiet time for homeschooling an older child, or honestly if I just need an extra minute to sip my hot coffee!
Dinosaur Preschool Theme Overview
This Dinosaur Preschool theme is sure to give your little learners TONS of fun practice! Children will have 15 center-style activities to choose from – 5 Math, 5 Literacy and 5 Fine Motor centers. In addition, I’ve included book recommendations for 5 dinosaur theme picture books and links to their read aloud videos on YouTube!
To use these printables, you can follow the PRE-MADE lesson plans for a week full of fun! Each of the 5 pre-planned days your students will have 1 read aloud, 1 Math activity, 1 Literacy activity, and 1 Fine Motor activity to work on. This is a great pace for little learners! But if you’d like to spread the activities out or rearrange them according your own child’s needs, simply print our provided Build-Your-Own Plans page and make your own plans!
PS See how we use this theme in our Preschool scope and sequence by grabbing our FREE Preschool Curriculum Map below!
Math Activities
This set of printables has 5 fun Dinosaur Preschool theme activities for practicing early Math skills. Children will practice number formation, number identification, counting, colors, and shapes. Our Preschool activities always include the use of small manipulatives for added fine motor skills practice!
One of my favorite dinosaur theme Math activities is the activity shown above! Clip cards are such a fantastic way to combine fine motor skills practice with academics! To use these cards, children identify the number over the volcano. Then they use clothespins to clip the matching number on the right side of the clip card. I especially love these matching clip cards for our littlest learners because matching is a simple but CRUCIAL way to practice number identification.
BONUS TIP: If your little ones are still working their way to using clothespins, try laying the cards flat on your work space and covering the answers with manipulatives from the sensory bin instead!
Literacy Activities
In addition to the Math centers, this set includes 5 early Dinosaur Preschool Literacy activities! Children will practice skills like letter identification, letter formation, beginning sounds, and handwriting practice with dinosaur theme vocabulary words!
Included in the Literacy printables from our dinosaur theme is the activity shown above. “Find and Trace” activities are a fun way to take your ordinary tracing worksheet and turn it into a game! To “play”, children choose letter cards from their sensory bin and find the match on the mat. Using a writing utensil, children trace the letters until all of the letters have been completed.
BONUS TIP: Extend this activity by discussing the sound each letter makes, and come up with words that begin with the sounds!
Fine Motor Activities
When working with little learners, strengthening fine motor skills is a must! Our 5 dinosaur theme fine motor activities will have your children working hard and having TONS of fun! They will practice scissor skills, mold using play dough, trace using manipulatives, and so much more!
An activity you’ll find included in this theme is this dinosaur bones matching mat! To use, place the dinosaur cards in your sensory bin. One a time, choose a card from the bin and match the dinosaur to its bones on the mat!
And… I lesson planned FOR YOU!
This set of activities (and all of the other 45+ sets in our FULL Preschool Curriculum) include a full week of print and go visual lesson plans! It shows you exactly which books and printables to use each day for a 5-day school week, making lesson planning an absolute breeze!
Want to build your own? Or maybe your kiddos are ready for some of the activities but not all of them? That’s great! Use the included Build Your Own lesson plans page! These thematic centers were designed with growing learners ages 2.5 to 5 years old in mind, so this lesson planning page allows you to choose which activities your child is ready for right now!
More February fun!
Ready to learn with your toddlers or Preschoolers ALL MONTH LONG?! You can save TONS when you grab this set of centers in our February Preschool Curriculum! The bundle includes 4 engaging February themes (like Valentine’s Day, Groundhog Day, and more!), complete with a week of lesson plans for each! You’ll also get 25 NO PREP Valentine’s Day themed fine motor skills worksheets and crafts, and 38 NO PREP Math and Literacy worksheets for extended practice!
Let’s hang out!
I hope this post helped you get a better look at our Dinosaur Theme Preschool activities! Got questions? Let me know! I’d love to chat and get to know you better! You can find us below in some of our favorite places to hang out. Can’t wait to chat with you about your Preschooler’s learning journey!
SAVE THIS POST FOR LATER!
Was this post about our Dinosaur Preschool theme helpful? Make sure you can come back to this post as much as you need by saving it for later on Pinterest! Click the image below to save this pin to your Preschool Activities board! Then, CLICK HERE to read about more of our favorite February themed activities!
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