Looking for fun ways to stomp and roar like a dinosaur--while also providing a valuable learning experience?
As a teacher-mom, I am having a blast putting my instruction-based skills to the test with my young children! We are having so much fun doing inquiry-based learning while layering in solid skills around science, math, technology, engineering and art!This post may contain affiliate links to materials I recommend. If you purchase something using these links I may receive a small commission.
STEM or STEAM Dinosaur-Style!
STEAM and STEM are blended approaches to teaching Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics.
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Prepping for our ICE AGE frozen dinosaur eggs STEAM project.
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If you are a homeschool parent or a classroom teacher, you will love these low-prep activities!
Dinosaurs Thematic STEAM Activity Unit
My TOP 5 favorite STEAM activities about Dinosaurs:
#1 Sorting Dinosaurs
Don’t discount the power of doing simple sorts. First, I purchased a medium-sized collection of dinosaur figurines.
Here are just some of the concepts we have covered, just through casual sorts and conversations:
- How do you think dinosaurs moved? Let’s sort them by their legs! (Biology concept–movement)
- Let’s try to move like a dinosaur ( Biology–movement & Math–patterns)
- Let’s dance to some music and move like a dinosaur! (Biology–movement, Math–Patterns, Music–expression and patterns)
- Let’s look at how to make the dinosaurs stand (Engineering–positioning objects)
- Can we put the dinosaurs in order by color, shape, size, height, features….? (Math–ordering, sorting, comparing, Science–biology traits)
- Can we make any patterns using our dinosaurs? (Math–patterns)
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#2 Dinosaur Nests
How do animals meet their needs? Looking at nests, provides an wonderful insight into the concept of shelter.
My kids love spying nests up in trees or on our nature walks. Our NESTING in NATURE activity allowed us to really get STEM-y!
Check out our pictures, where you will see us gathering a variety of materials, sorting them, constructing our nests, positioning items, and using relative positioning (up, down, behind, etc.) to make changes.
Yes… it’s amazing how many concepts you can teach while having FUN!
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Dinosaur Material Hunting 
Digging for dirt 
Making mud 
Relative Positioning for our Nest 
3-year olds nest! 
Looking for dinosaur eggs 
Placing dinosaur eggs in our nest
#3 Dinosaur Shapes
There are oodles of ways to incorporate shape practice into your dinosaur learning. We decided to do sponge painting!
My son’s favorite dinosaur is the stegosaurus, which was especially fun to make. I helped my daughter make a brontosaurus!
We used circles! 
We made shapes 
Brontosaurus
#4 Tracking Patterns
Noticing patterns is a math skill your child will continue to build upon throughout their learning. We work on patterns often.
Here we are working on alternating 2- and 4-foot walkers (with 5-year old) and exploring steps by twos, which morphed into color exploration (with 3-year old!)
Counting by 2s 
Alternating Pattern 
Color exploration
#5 ICE AGE: Froze Dinosaur Eggs
This STEAM Challenge was amazing! I was able to layer in many STEM concepts, which caused my children to ask interesting questions (which we began to record on a large sheet of paper, for further research!)
Testing out Kitchen Tools 
List of Dinosaur Questions 
Measuring size with our hands 
Dinosaur STEM Challenge
There is incredible value in blending in meaningful technology, engineering and art skills with math and science… but it takes time!
Don’t worry! I’ve done the work for you!
If you would like to learn more about how to turn these activities into full S.T.E.A.M. projects AND would like 3 additional activities, check out my TeachersPayTeachers Store, where you can purchase this full Thematic Unit on Dinosaurs for ages 3-6!
This Dinosaurs Thematic STEAM Activity unit includes:
- 7 S.T.E.A.M Activities (through guided inquiry)
- 1 S.T.E.A.M. Challenge (child-directed)
- Printable Labels for Sorting
- S.T.E.A.M./S.T.E.M. Teaching Tips
- Suggested Materials
- Cause & Effect Graphic Organizer
- Background Information Pages
- Images for Planning
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FREE S.T.E.M. Activity: A very important start-up activity for young children, is to start learning about the differences between LIVING and NONLIVING organisms. This is an essential component to most life science investigations. Enjoy this free blended curriculum plan!
Thank you for reading along!
I wish you joy and luck on your dinosaur discoveries.
Be sure to share with anyone you think may enjoy this!
