Here’s an awesome dinosaur learning binder chocked full of colorful and engaging dino activities!
This one is bound to be a hit with all the dino fans out there! There’s counting games, number ordering, line tracing, puzzles, letter matching, coloring and more!
For each activity, there’s a page or two to go in the learning binder (which will need to be hole-punched) along with pages of resources to be cut out.
I’m not going to lie, there’s a fair bit of prep for this one but boy is it worth it!
This dinosaur binder will help your little ones practice and develop all types of skills, from pencil control and fine motor skills, to counting, number recognition, letter recognition, early reading skills and many more.
Below is a list of each activity along with all the skills that can be practiced.
There’s even a fun ‘Dino Land’, for some imaginative play and some dinosaur coloring for a bit of creative chilling!
If you’re a Nurtured Neurons member, you can download the dinosaur learning binder by clicking on the download box at the bottom of this page.
Not a member yet – what are you waiting for? Become a member and get access to all the awesome activities today!
So What Activities are in this Dinosaur Learning Binder?
Below is a list of all the cool dino activities, some tips on how to use them, as well as some of the main skills your children can practice and develop.
Dinosaur Color Matching
Oh no! All the dinosaurs have lost their eggs!
For this activity, your children will have to help the dinosaurs out by correctly finding the eggs which match their color!
What Skills Can They Practice and Develop?
- Color recognition practice – they will need to look closely at the egg and spot colors, to ensure that they are pairing the dinosaurs with the correct eggs.
- Fine motor skills – as they’ll need to be able to pick up the eggs, and hand-eye coordination and hand control as they ensure they are placing them with the right dinosaur.
- Speech and language development – If you make sure you are getting them to say the colors when they are matching, it will help the color names become embedded as they associate the name of the color with what it looks like. You can also ask them questions – what else do you know that is green? Can you see anything else in the room which is pink? Where is it? This kind of questioning will keep them engaged and is great for language development as they describe what they are thinking and can see.
- Patience and persistence – They’ll have to carry on even if they find it tricky at first.
Dinosaur Shadow Matching
Although it may seem like just a fun matching game to pass some time, shadow matching is actually a great way for children to improve their visual discrimination skills. This is the ability to be able to tell the difference between different shapes, objects or symbols.
And this skill is an extremely important one when it comes to being able to read. When you think about it, the basis of letter recognition is being able to tell different letters apart from each other and remembering what their shapes look like.
What Skills Can They Practice and Develop?
- Visual Discrimination skills– the ability to notice differences between objects and symbols. Your kids will have to look closely at the shapes to make the correct pairings!
- Fine motor skills – as they’ll need to be able to pick up the dinosaurs, and hand-eye coordination and hand control as they ensure they are placing them with the right shadows.
- Speech and language skills – If you make sure you are getting them to talk about what they can see when they are matching. It’s a good chance to get them to describe what they can see. What shapes can you see? Do you know anything else that’s that shape?
- Shape and pattern – shape and pattern recognition are important early math skills.
Dinosaur Picture Puzzle
The dinos have got themselves in a bit of a muddle – can your children help put them back together?
Jumble all the dino pieces together for an extra challenge.
What Skills Can They Practice and Develop?
- Fine motor skills – they will have to use a good pincer grip to pick up the puzzle pieces and place them in the right place
- Hand-eye coordination – to ensure they can move and line up the pieces
- Problem solving – they’ll have to work out how to put the puzzle together correctly using their problem solving skills. Will they work methodically, one piece at a time until they’re happy it looks right? Will they arrange the pieces on the table first before placing them on the grid? Will they use trial and error to see what works?
- Shape And Geometry – being able to rotate the pieces and understanding how the different parts of the dinosaurs go together to create the whole picture
- Patience – they may have to try lots of configurations before they get all the pieces lined up correctly
Line Tracing
The aim of the game is simple – to help the big dinosaurs find their lost eggs.
The only way your little ones will be able to do this is by carefully tracing the lines to connect the dinosaurs with the eggs.
There’s two difficulties included.
What Skills Can They Practice and Develop?
- Hand-eye coordination – to be able to understand what they are seeing and get their hands to go where they want them to go
- Hand and finger strength – the ability to be able to apply enough pressure to make marks on the page and hold the pencil firmly
- Hand dominance – developing and strengthening the skill of one of their hands
- Crossing the mid-line – this is the ability to cross the imaginary line running down the center of your body – it means they wont have to switch hands if they want to write on the other side of the page
- Pencil control – holding the pencil correctly to allow for a fluid range of movement
Dinosaur Egg Letter Matching
Here they’ll have to match the upper case letters with the lower case ones by placing the eggs carefully in the correct place.
What Skills Can They Practice and Develop?
- Letter recognition – knowing what the written form (letters) of the sounds look like and being able to match upper and lower case letters
- Fine motor skills – they will have to use a good pincer grip to pick up the eggs and place them in the right place
- Hand-eye coordination – to be able to understand what they are seeing and get their hands to go where they want them to go
Dinosaur Number Ordering
Can your children use their knowledge of number order to put the dinos in the right order? There’s dinos on each card so they can visualize what that number ‘looks like’ – this will help them build their number sense.
What Skills Can They Practice and Develop?
- Number recognition – the ability to recognize a number in its written form
- Number sequencing – the ability to understand the sequence of numbers, and be able to put them in the correct order
- Number sense – understanding what numbers really ‘look like’ in your child’s every day world
- Fine motor skills – they will have to use a good pincer grip to pick up the number tiles and place them in the right place
Dinosaur Counting
Will your children be able to carefully count the baby dinosaurs and match them to the correct egg half? Only one way to find out…
Now this is a little tricky because the dinosaurs aren’t all in neat little lines. It’ll be a good test of their counting skills – but don’t be surprised if they make a few mistakes at first.
There’s two difficulties included.
What Skills Can They Practice and Develop?
- Counting skills – they’ll have to count the baby dinosaurs carefully to ensure they are matching the correct egg halves
- Number recognition – they’ll need to be able to recognize the numbers to match them up correctly
- One to one correspondence – this important skill (trickier than you may think) is the ability to only touch and count an object of a set once.
- Subitizing – the ability to to quickly recognize, by looking at a group of things, how many there are.
CVC Word Building
CVC stands for consonant – vowel – consonant, and CVC words are easy words that your children will be able to sound out and blend as they begin to learn to read.
Here they’ll have to choose a picture, segment the word into its sounds, then find the correct letter eggs to spell the word.
What Skills Can They Practice and Develop?
- Segmenting – this is the ability to breakdown and hear each sound in a word.
- Sounding out – this is saying the different sounds that the written letters make, one sound at a time.
- Blending – the ability to put the different sounds of a word together to be able to correctly say the word.
- Letter recognition – recognizing the written form of the letters
Dino Land for some Imaginative Play
This activity will allow them to have a little fun and let their imagination run wild!
I wonder what amazing dino stories they’ll come up with.
What Skills Can They Practice and Develop?
- Imagination, story telling and social / communication skills – when going on playful adventures with friends and family and creating dinosaur tales
- Fine motor skills – as they move the small dinosaurs around Dino Land
Dinosaur Coloring Pages
And some cute coloring pages for when they want a little chill out time.
What Skills Can They Practice and Develop?
- Creativity – coloring is a great way to promote a child’s creativity. Will they make their dinosaur spotty or stripy? Will they draw a background? Will there be a story to go along with the dinosaur and will they give their creation a name?
- Hand-eye coordination – to be able to understand what they are seeing and get their hands to go where they want them to go
- Hand and finger strength – the ability to be able to apply enough pressure to make marks on the page and hold the pencil firmly
- Hand dominance – developing and strengthening the skill of one of their hands
- Crossing the mid-line – this is the ability to cross the imaginary line running down the center of your body – it means they won’t have to switch hands if they want to color on the other side of the page
- Pencil control – holding the pencil correctly to allow for a full and fluid range of movement
I think you’ll agree there’s a lot of learning to be had in this awesome dinosaur learning binder.
I really hope your little learners enjoy practicing all those skills in a fun, dinosaur themed way!
