Dinosaur Mural

On the first day of any unit, I set up a mural for Nora to color and paint. It's just a fun activity, and also serves as a good visual intro to the topic. To make murals, I just print out coloring pages from various web sites -- they are free, and since they're just outlines, won't take a huge toll on your printer cartridge. I've listed some links to dinosaur coloring pages below.

I included a foam "volcano" and some trees for scenery.

Michael's Crafts store also had a set in their dollar bin where you could buy a plastic volcano and 6 little plastic dinosaurs. Yep, only a buck, and Nora still plays with those little things. She liked to move them all around the mural and have them "play" with the larger paper dinosaurs.

At Michael's, you can also get thin little basla wood cutouts of dinosaurs. They are about a dollar apiece. They're fun to paint. Later, you could fill a small container (like a baking pan) with sand and these will stand up in them -- all the more fun because your child painted them herself and essentially made her own toys.<