Small Worlds: Dinosaur Play Time

We’ve hit the Dinosaur phase at our place. I blame Dorothy the Dinosaur, as many mothers do.

After tripping over a plastic dinosaur one time too many, I decided to create our first small world. Small worlds encourage creative and imaginative play. I love them for the vocab development opportunities that they provide and they are also fabulous from a sensory perspective.

They are also super easy to create.

* You know your children best. Please use your own judgement as to whether this is a suitable activity for your child and supervise as necessary.

Step 1: I purchased this planter thingamajig from the local gardening centre. We filled it halfway with soil, then went on a hunt around the garden for suitable additions.

Step 2: Add Rocks, wood chips, twigs… whatever you have at your disposal! As we did this, we had a great chat about the texture of the items we were collecting.

Step 3: This is the fun part where we introduce the dinosaurs to their new home. Although at this point, The Toddler had a full-blown tantrum at me for attempting to play with her dinosaurs. You don’t see that part on Pinterest, do you?

No more tripping over dinosaur toys for me and lots of imaginative play for The Toddler! I believe we’d call that a win-win!

What phase is happening at your place at the moment?

This activity is a modified version of a post that first appeared on Oh Creative Day.

More dinosaur fun:

Images: Shannon Wong-Nizic