Who thinks dinosaurs are great? I do! Well, if you and your children do as well, you can make your very own dinosaur at home with this build a stegosaurus craft.
Stegosauruses were herbivores and weren’t the brightest of the dinos – their brain was only the size of a walnut, but so what? This one sure is cute! It’s now also believed that the plates on the back weren’t for defense but to help regulate their temperature – but don’t worry – they had those massive spikes on their tails if they needed to protect themselves!
This simple activity is great for developing your child’s cutting and sticking skills, and an awesome chance to practice some pencil control and fine motor skills as well!
These cute dinosaur templates are great for preschoolers to use because they’re so simple for them to put together!
And there’s a color and a plain template – so your little ones can choose the colors and decorate their own stegosaurus as they wish – spotty and stripy stegosaurus? Sure why not?
It could also make a lovely activity for anyone having a dinosaur party or for any future paleontologists out there!
Other dinosaur printable activities you may want to check out:
- Dinosaur Trace The Lines Writing Practice
- Dinosaur Finger Puppet Templates
- Cute Dinosaur Color Matching Game
- Dinosaur Letter Matching Game
- Baby Dinosaur Counting Game
- Dinosaur Coloring Pages
What Skills Can Your Children Learn And Practice?
When using this make a dinosaur template, your children will have the chance to practice and develop some skills such as:
- Cutting Skills – if you feel they’re ready, you can let them have a go at cutting out the pieces all by themselves – they’ll need to be careful and have good scissor control if they want to cut out the pieces neatly
- Fine Motor Skills – when they’re sticking and picking up and moving the parts and placing them where they need to go
- General Knowledge – making this craft can be a great chance to talk all about dinosaurs – did you know, for example, that stegosauruses lived in the Jurassic Period (around 150 million years ago) and their name means ‘roofed lizard’?
- Pencil Control – if you print off the black and white version they can practice their pencil control and develop hand strength through coloring.
This simple stegosaurus craft will also give them a chance to practice their concentration and perseverance skills as they may find it tricky to place the pieces exactly where they want them to go.
How To Prepare This Build a Stegosaurus Craft
First you’re going to want to download the dino templates by clicking on the download box at the bottom of the page – I’ve made a color and a black and white version!
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Other materials you’ll need:
- Safety scissors
- Card stock or Craft paper
- Some good glue
- Some coloring pencils or pens
Once you’ve downloaded the templates, you’ll need to print them off onto paper or card.
Then, you can cut them out. Or if you’d like your children to get some cutting practice, you can let them have a go.
Then you can stick all the pieces together to build your stegosaurus.
It can be really nice to let you’re kids have a bit of free rein here and see if they can work it out – kind of like a puzzle.
If they’re struggling, the order I’d do it in is:
- Stick the plates to the body
- Stick larger legs to the back of the body
- Stick the smaller legs to the front
- Stick the spikes on the tail
(I expect you could have worked that out but I do like to be thorough…)
The finished one should look something like this:
What a cute little dino – stomp stomp, stomp!
If you want to, you could always laminate the pieces before putting them together and use them as a puzzle. That way the different parts would be kept nice and they can use them again and again.
I’ve also created even more cute characters which I will be releasing in the coming weeks so they could use them together in a mix and match game as well (if you don’t want to miss them you can turn on notifications by clicking on the bell in the bottom right corner).
A few more ‘build-a-‘ characters you may want to check out:
- Build-A-Unicorn Printable
- Build-A-Leprechaun Printable
- Build-A-Pirate Printable
- Build-A-Fairy Printable
After that you’re all done!
Let your kids practice their cutting and sticking skills in a simple and fun way!
But Wait… There’s Also A Black And White Build A Stegosaurus Craft Template!
I’ve also made a black and white version which would be an awesome way for your little ones to practice their coloring skills and personalize their dinosaur in their own way!
So why not crack out the pens, crayons, paints or collage (or all of them if you’re feeling adventurous) and let your kids get creative!
Fake colored feathers and googly eyes could be good here!
I’d love to see what they create!
