Make Dinosaur Footprints!

What You Need:

• Play dough
• Rolling pin
• Fine grain sand
• Water
• Shallow container for the sand
• White glue
• Paintbrush
• Tools to make the imprints (We used a butter knife and a spoon, but feel free to get creative!)

For the No-Bake Clay:

• ¾ cup flour
• ½ cup salt
• ½ cup cornstarch
• Warm water
• Medium saucepan
• Towel
• Bowl

What You Do:

1. Start by making the no-bake clay on your stovetop. Combine all of the ingredients in a medium saucepan, heat over medium, and stir consistently with a wooden spoon until the consistency is that of mashed potatoes.
2. Take it off the burner, put in a bowl, cover with a towel, and let it cool for about 15 minutes.
3. While it’s cooling, take out some play dough and flatten it out using the rolling pin. Encourage your child to mold different shapes into the surface of the play dough first using only their fingers, and then the tools to make more precise indentations in the surface of the clay.
4. Talk about how different animals have different footprints. What does a bird footprint look like? Try to make a pair. What about a cat? A dog? Do they look the same? What about a dinosaur?
5. Now have your child try to create footprints of dinosaurs in a shallow container filled with sand. What do they notice?
6. Add water to the sand until it's soaked through and have them try once again to make the footprint. Ask them what they think this means about fossils.  
7. Now encourage your child to recreate some dinosaur footprints with their tools in the clay. Let them dry overnight (flipping the piece of clay at least once).
8. Decorate with sand or glitter by painting on the glue around the footprint. Be sure to coat the outside edges and dust plenty of sand on it. Now your child has their very own dinosaur footprint!