We really enjoyed our dinosaur themed unit this summer and ended it with these fun and simple dinosaur footprint activities! If you have a dinosaur fan in your family, you will want to check out our full week or weeks of dinosaur activities. From dinosaur sensory bin, going on a fossil dig, to hatching dinosaur eggs, we had a blast with our favorite dinosaurs.
Explore Dinosaurs For Early Learning
Our dinosaur unit has finally come to a close with a trip to see real life dinosaur footprints up close right in our area. Holyoke, MA is home to a huge slab of rock down by the river with probably a dozen footprints thought to be of a two-legged, carnivorous dinosaur. How cool is that?
I planned a few dinosaur footprint activities leading up to our visit to the foot prints, but lets start with the great photos of our field trip first!
(I did not use chalk, but it was helpful for my son to see exactly where they were!)
My favorite dinosaur footprint!
Get Your FREE Printable Dinosaur Activities Guide
Use this Dinosaur Activity Planning Guide for your next dinosaur theme unit!
Dinosaur Footprint Activities
Painting Footprints
Paint dinosaur footprints and make dinosaur tracks. We used watercolors but any washable non toxic paint would work.
I drew a pattern for a footprint over and over onto paper. I also traced his feet just for fun! He enjoyed painting the footprints.
Finish by counting the number of dinosaur footprints and talk about which ones walk on four legs or two. You can also explore color mixing!
Dinosaur Footprint Game
Play a dinosaur footprint ABC & 123 game. Help the dinosaur across the lava (floor)! This game was awesome for letter and number recognition, locating the correct numbers and placing them in the correct order while helping his favorite dinosaur across the floor, oh I mean lava!
Cut out 26 footprints and put letters on one side and numbers on the other. Spread them out on one side of the room in rows (out-of-order) and then get kids to place them in alphabetical order as they move a dinosaur from print to print.
Of course, it included some gross motor play. Flip the footprints over and you have another game with numbers!
Dinosaur Footprint Measuring Activity
Here is a life size Triceratops footprint that we measured and filled with hand prints. Very big and it took quite a few sheets to print but black/white, fast print works fine!
I thought it would be fun to cut out handprints and see how many would it take to fit inside the footprint. We actually did this after visiting the tracks, so it was neat that he actually got to put his hand inside a real footprint!
It took 40 of his handprints to fill it. He counted! This is certainly my favorite of the dinosaur footprint activities!
Dinosaur Footprint Art
Get STOMPING, stamping or printmaking with a fun process art activity that uses toy dinosaurs as paintbrushes! Your junior paleontologist or dino loving kiddo is going to have a blast making dinosaur art with plastic dinosaurs. Plus, give those dinos a soapy, bubble bath afterward to extend the fun! Click here for the free printable activity.
Bonus: Dinosaur Sensory Play
Dinosaur bubble bath sensory play. Ok, so it isn’t a footprint activity exactly. These poor dinosaurs feet were dirty! They have hung out in sensory bin, have been painted, and have been played with frequently.
Might as well fill up the water table with warm, soapy, sudsy water, add a sponge to clean them up! Washing bins make great sensory play activities and they get toys clean too.
We have done so many wonderful dinosaur footprint activities! I hope you will check out all our other great sensory play and hands-on activities for dinosaurs while you are here!
Printable Dinosaur Activity Pack
Get all the instructions and activities in our Dinosaur Project Pack. Plus, find free early-learning dinosaur activities to keep the kiddos busy!
Thanks for keeping us up to date. Love you all.
Wow, I had no idea that Holyoke had dinosaur tracks! Sadly I live on the other side of the state, so now we just need to come up with an excuse to venture to Western Mass to go looking for dinosaur tracks… 🙂 Your dinosaur week looks like it was so exciting and fun! We definitely enjoy activities like that and you have given me a few ideas to try with my own kids. 🙂
Holyoke has a nice children’s museum too and the Springfield Museums next door are also pretty cool with a dinosaur room and outdoor Dr. Seuss sculptures.
Wow that sounds great! I think we will definitely need to take a trip out there. 🙂
So many fun, creative dinosaur ideas! My son LOVES dinosaurs too =)
Thanks for linking up at TGIF!
Beth
What fun!! I love the handprint footprint. Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!
DO you know where I can get this giant footprint template from now?? The page seems to not be there when I click on the link.
Oh bummer, I will check and see if I can find a replacement. Of course, you could freehand something similar and photocopy it!