Storytime: Dinosaurs

Books

*Are the Dinosaurs Dead, Dad? by Julie Middleton

Gigantosaurus by Jonny Duddle

*Inside-Outside Dinosaurs by Roxie Munro

The Littlest Dinosaur’s Big Adventure by Michael Foreman

Dig Those Dinosaurs by Lori Haskins Houran

*I Dreamt I was a Dinosaur by Stella Blackstone

Books marked with a * are the ones I used for this storytime. I have a thing about not using dinosaur stories that show people living with dinosaurs so most of these titles do not have human characters. Are The Dinosaurs Dead, Dad? does include humans with dinosaurs, but the dinosaurs are museum exhibits so that was okay for me. Both of the humans in that story are white. Dig Those Dinosaus is about paleontologists and there is some diversity in the humans included in the illustrations. Inside-Outside Dinosaurs is a non-fiction book, not a story. I shared it with the kids at the end of storytime. It has one large spread of a dinosaur skeleton over two pages with the name of the dinosaur and what it means. On the next page it has an illustration of the dinosaur in it's habitat. The kids in my group were really into the pictures in this one, so we went a little over our half hour looking at pictures of the dinosaurs!

Songs and Rhymes

Activities marked with a * are the ones we used for this storytime.

Song: “The Little baby Dinosaur”

(Tune: Itsy Bitsy Spider)

The little baby dinosaur

Climbed up to the top

Of a volcano

That was ready to pop!

Out came the lava,

So very, very hot

And the little baby dinosaur

Ran home without a stop!

*Song: Dinosaurs in the Swamp

(Tune: Wheels on the Bus)

The Tyrannosaurus Rex goes grr grr grr grr grr grr, grr grr grr

The Tyrannosaurus Rex goes grr grr grr…

All through the swamp.

The Triceratops’ horns go poke poke poke…(etc.)

The Stegosaurus’ tail goes spike, spike, spike…(etc.)

The Apatasaurus’ mouth goes munch, munch, munch…(etc.)

The Pteranodon’s wings go flap flap flap…(etc.)

Song: “Dinosaurs All Around”

(Tune: If You’re Happy and You Know It)

There are dinosaurs stomping all around. (stomp, stomp)

There are dinosaurs stomping all around. (stomp, stomp)

There are dinosaurs all around, stomping on the ground.

There are dinosaurs stomping, all around. (stomp, stomp)

There are dinosaurs flying everywhere. (woosh, woosh)

There are dinosaurs flying everywhere. (woosh, woosh)

There are dinosaurs everywhere, flying in the air.

There are dinosaurs flying everywhere. (woosh, woosh)

There are dinosaurs eating from the trees. (munch, munch)

There are dinosaurs eating from the trees. (munch, munch)

There are dinosaurs in the trees, eating all the leaves.

There are dinosaurs eating from the trees. (munch, munch)

Transition Rhyme: “Dinosaur, Dinosaur”

Dinosaur, dinosaur, turn around.
Dinosaur, dinosaur, stomp the ground.
Dinosaur, dinosaur, show your claws.
Dinosaur, dinosaur, snap your jaws.
Dinosaur, dinosaur, turn around.
Dinosaur, dinosaur, sit back down.

*Transition Rhyme: “Dinosaurs”

Spread your arms, way out wide

Fly like Pteranodon, soar and glide

Bend to the floor, head down low

Move like Stegosaurus, long ago

Reach up tall, try to be

As tall as an Apatosaurus eating a tree

Using your claws, grumble and growl

Just like Tyrannosaurus on the prowl

Flannelboard

*Flannelboard: “Five Enormous Dinosaurs”

Five enormous dinosaurs letting out a roar,

One stomped away and then there were four.

Stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp,

stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp, ROAR!

Four enormous dinosaurs munching on a tree,

One stomped away and then there were three.

Stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp,

stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp, ROAR!

Three enormous dinosaurs didn’t know what to do,

One stomped away and then there were two.

Stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp,

stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp, ROAR!

Two enormous dinosaurs having lots of fun,

One stomped away and then there was one.

Stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp,

stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp, ROAR!

One enormous dinosaur saw the setting sun,

She flew home and then there were none.

Flap, flap, flap, flap,

flap, flap, flap, flap, ROAR!

Craft

Another great craft from I Heart Crafty Things: paper plate dinosaurs! I made an example of a T-rex and an Apatosaurus. These were super fun and simple. The kids decorated their plates with dot markers or crayons and then care givers helped with the cutting and hole punching. Having brads to attach the limbs is fun because it makes them movable! One kid gave his dinosaur two different head types that could rotate behind the dinosaur's body so it could be two different types! I thought that was super creative!

How it Went

A few of the kids were pretty squirmy today. One boy did not want to put his scarves away when it was time and his mom ended up needing to take him out of the room for a while. Another girl really wanted to sing the "elevator song" when we got the scarves out which had nothing to do with the theme, but of course we sang it anyway since she wanted it so much. The kids had fun making the dinosaurs stomp away and then roaring with the flannelboard. I had the Inside-Outside Dinosaurs book on the table, but didn't think we'd get to it since we usually only have time for one book. One of the kids asked about it though so I pulled it out at the end. They loved it. We actually went a little over time flipping through that book. I was only going to show them a few pages, but they wanted to see the whole thing.