Excavating Dinosaurs: Science, water play, and fine motor development all wrapped up in a fun, cool learning activity!
This Dinosaur activity was an extremely simple set up that kept my kiddos entertained and exploring science for over an hour!
We had an absolute blast with this activity! I thought that the kids might find it a tad frustrating as it takes forever to get those little dinosaurs out of their icy eggs, but it was the opposite! This activity was PERFECT for keeping them entertained for a good long time while exploring and having fun!
Items Needed for Excavating Dinosaurs:
- Balloons
- Toy Dinosaurs
- Water
How to Make Dinosaur Eggs:
We added our small dinosaurs to the inside of the balloons (this was a two person job) and then filled the balloons with water to be frozen over night.
Once frozen simply cut the balloons off the ice and you are ready to play!
Now You Will Need Some Excavation Tools…
We used a bucket filled with loose small dinosaurs, frozen ice shapes, and a splash of salt water to get the play started. To excavate the dinosaurs we used a turkey baster, a dish scrubber, and some “handy man” tools…we got all technical with this one!
The turkey baster was definitely the biggest hit out of all of our tools available. I have been eyeing a set of fine motor tools from Learning Resources now for a couple months (but every time I go to order them they are out of stock), so I was pretty excited to discover that this went over as well as it did with my kids!
Not to mention it was great to see it get used…because I honestly cannot remember the last time I made a turkey…
Meatball did a pretty good job with precision. He was absolutely amazed to watch the ice melt away from the toy dinosaurs!
All in all this activity definitely was a win for us and one we will be visiting again!
Recommended Dinosaur Books for Activity:
Find all of our Dinosaur Book Recommendations here!
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Did you use water balloons as I can’t get regular balloons to fill properly. They fill only a tiny bit, no bigger than an ice cube. I’ve tried stretching and blowing them, however, to no avail.
Hi Emma,
We did use regular balloons (from the dollar store), but water balloons would also work. We blew the balloons up full before doing this, but that sounds like it isn’t working for you so I would attempt water balloons.
This looks so fun!! Did you have the eggs in a bin of water? How did you have them fill the turkey baster? Thanks!!