Dinosaur Dinorama

What You Do:

1. Help your child use scissors to cut out one wall of the shoe box.
2. Have her paint the inside of the box to match a picturesque dinosaur environment. Encourage her to use different shades of green for rolling hills, bright blues for the sky, and a blazing orange or yellow hue for the sun. Make sure she doesn't forget plants and other dinosaurs as well!
3. Let her use her dinosaur pictures to draw outlines of different types of dinosaurs on the construction paper.
4. Use this opportunity to teach her about perspective. The dinosaurs she wants to feature in her dinorama should be drawn bigger; the dinosaurs in the background should be drawn smaller. Draw outlines of your dinosaurs on the construction paper. Remind her to not draw any dinosaurs taller than her shoe box.
5. Have her use scissors to cut out her dinosaur shapes.
6. Let your child use a black marker to outline and draw in details on each dinosaur.
7. Help her draw rectangles on a new sheet of construction paper. Each rectangle should be about two inches long and one inch wide. She should have as many rectangles drawn as dinosaurs.
8. Have her cut out each rectangle.
9. Show her how to tape half of the construction paper rectangle to each dinosaur. Fold down the other half and tape it to the base of the shoe box. These little rectangle tabs will keep her dinosaurs upright.
10. Once the dinosaurs are all placed in the box, help your child spread a thin layer of glue over the bottom.
11. Have her gently press some dirt and small rocks into the cardboard base.
12. Set aside her dinosaur dinorama to dry.
13. After the shoe box has fully dried, peer into it with your child. What adventures can she imagine taking place in her little world?