The boys love doing something fun after school so one day last week I decided to set up a ‘Dinosaur Dig’ ready for when they got home.

Incidentally – I thought this activity was about archaeology, because we’re digging stuff up.

It isn’t. It’s about paleontology – the scientific study of life. So that’s me told, then. Thanks Google!

Schleich dig collage

I used:

  • a cat litter tray from Home Bargains
  • six mini Schleich dinosaurs and some ‘treasure’ we bought from the Maritime Museum in Liverpool
  • a small bag of plaster of paris from Hobbycraft
  • twinkl dinosaur resources

I’ve had people comment on how much money I spend putting these activities together for the boys, so I’ll just mention here that quite often we are asked to try out new toys and I will incorporate those into educational play. That’s what I’ve done here with the six mini Schleich dinosaurs we were sent to review. We received:

Dino Collage

  • stegosaurus
  • pentaceratops
  • velociraptor
  • triceratops
  • tyrannosaurus rex
  • saichania

(If any of those are wrong, please do let me know! I’ve never heard of half of them!)

You can find your nearest stockist of Schleich toys here. They retail at around £2.99 each for these mini dinosaurs.

Once the plaster was dry, I gave the boys some digging tools (a spoon and a blunt knife) and they set to work. I was really surprised at how long it took to dig out those dinosaurs actually – it’s harder than it looks!

being bathed collage

Eventually dinosaur number one was free, and off he went for a bath! All of the figures withstood the trauma of being encased in plaster and subsequently dug up with blunt instruments – in my eyes that’s a sign of a very well made toy.

Not one of the dinosaurs lost any colour or markings during their ordeal and I’m convinced they’re the kind of toy that will quite literally last a lifetime, just like the memories we’re making as we undertake our little after school adventures. Just look how happy that little face is – all because he dug a dinosaur out of a litter tray.

happy digger

 

The twinkl resources were fantastic. We made our own mini dinosaur museum, talked about the parts of a dinosaur as well as the different species and discussed habitat, diet and more.

If you have a dinosaur superfan at home, twinkl even have a dinosaur lapbook template available to simply download, cut and stick.

Do your children have toys that seem as though they’ll last forever? What are they? What’s their favourite after school activity? Lets chat in the comments!

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5 Comments

  1. What a great idea!!!! I loved Schleich figures as a kid, I didn’t realise they made dinosaurs now 🙂 I’ll have to show my friend who’s a primary school teacher, this could be a great activity!

  2. Lucas says – AWESOME idea! I love my snakes and dinosaur figures and I love how you’ve played with them!! AWESOME!! Thanks for linking to #minicreations

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