My 5 year old loves dinosaurs and was looking forward to watching Jurassic World when it hit theaters last week. Unsure of how he would handle the movie, we watched Jurassic Park and the Lost World at home, to gauge his reactions.
He loved both.
But then again the dinosaurs in the original and sequel seemed so much tamer than the ones in the Jurassic World trailer.
So Hubs and Dottie said they’d watch the film first before agreeing to take him in.
I’m glad they did because both said the movie would have been too terrifying for him to stomach.
(Spoiler alert: There are several gory scenes, a few cuss words and scary moments splattered throughout the film.)
Needless to say, our Little Man was disappointed. To make him feel better about not getting to watch the movie after all, we spent a morning making dinosaur fossils!
DIY Dinosaur Fossils
These are so easy to make and best of all, they look awesome once dried.
Materials required to make salt dough:
1 – 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (Start off by adding 1 cup)
1 – 1 1/2 cups salt (Start off by adding 1 cup)
1/2 cup water
You will also need mini dinosaur figurines. These can be bought at your local dollar store.
Instructions:
1. Mix the salt and flour together. Adding a little water at a time to make the dough.
2. Knead this properly till you have a clean (not sticky, like the photograph below) dough ball to work with.
Feel free to add more flour/salt if you feel the dough ball is too sticky. (This is where the additional 1/2 cup of flour and salt may be used)
3. Now make small balls and flatten the same between your palms, ensuring the dough is at least 0.5″ thick
4. Take a dinosaur figure and gently press the same into the dough.
Mommy Tip: Use wax paper under the dough to prevent the same from sticking. Plus it makes clean up so much easier at the end!
Make sure you can see the dinosaur’s impression on the dough clearly.
5. Once you’ve completed making impressions on your fossils-to-be, place them outside in the sun for a few hours. (We’re in Texas and you know how scorching the sun can get, so ours were ready in 5 hours time.)
Or bake these in the oven, at 200 degrees Fahrenheit, for 2-3 hours. Basically, till the fossils are dry.
And there you have it, your dinosaur fossils are ready!
My kids experimented by painting a dinosaur and by covering one or two with turmeric powder before making imprints on the dough.
In the end they decided leaving the dinos as is, looked more realistic!
I think these turned out beautifully!
Looking for more harmless dino fun for your child?
Here are a few great ideas from these creative Fandango Family Mamas:
Have you done any fun, dino-themed, child-friendly crafts, recipes or activities with your child/children?
Please feel free to share links to the same in the comments below.
Unsure whether to take your child to watch Jurassic World? Wondering whether Jurassic World the Scariest Dino Movie Of All?
Read reviews for this movie and others on the Fandango Family page. {Also read Is Jurassic World OK for children from Trey, a Fandango Family Papa}
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What a fun idea! My kids would love those.
Oh goodness I’m loving all the dino crafts! And these! The twins can help make these! Thanks for the post!
How fun and creative! My two boys who are 4 and 6 are in a HUGE dinosaur phase right now so this is something I could really see us doing and enjoying. They would LOVE IT.
This is such a cute and creative idea! You can do so many things with this, make necklaces or ornaments or what have you!
I like the idea of making ornaments out of these! How fun.
Oh wow these are so cute!! I know my kids would love to make these!
That is such a fun idea! My kids have been obsessed with dinosaurs forever, and now that Jurassic World has come out, they’ve gone into overdrive. I’ll have to do this project with them.
Thee are such cute dinosaur inspired ideas. We saw the movie and while I really enjoyed it I agree it would be too intense for a 5 year old.
How fun and a great way to repurpose all those toy dinosaurs. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I really want to!
This looks like a fun craft and there’s some awesome tips. My grandson loves dinosaurs so I can’t wait to do this with him.
How fun! This is such a creative craft for kids that love dinos!
That is such a cute idea! This is the perfect project for any little dinosaur lover.
I wish I’d done something like this with my son when he was little. He would have loved it! He was all dinosaurs all the time.
That’s a great idea for one of the upcoming school-free days. My boys will love this!
What a fun looking craft!! I will have to show my daughter, she would love it!
This is such a neat and creative idea. I will have to do this with my nephew he will love it.
This is a great craft and learning activity for kids! There are so many senses involved and it would be a great accompaniment to a dinosaur learning theme for home schooling!
That is so fun! This would be a great summer craft idea to do with kiddos. It would be perfect for any other dino learning lessons!
That is such a clever idea. The ridges on the figurines work so well with this project. They look so fossil-like!
I always enjoy finding fun activities to make the excitement of a movie last beyond the theater. These are all excellent suggestions and my kids are quite anxious to see Jurassic World.
These are such great ideas! My kids are really into dinos now too!
Too bad he didn’t get to see the movie. Making fossils at home seems like a great way to make up for it though.
That is a cute project to do. Well, all of them are . Lol
My nephew loves Dinosaurs and I bet he would love to help make those! Will bookmark for the next time he comes for a visit!
Oh what total fun. I could see doing all of these with my kids, especially little man. He loves everything dinosaur… Thanks so much for sharing.
What a fun activity! Those dino eggs look cool too!
What a fun summer activity to do with the kids. I bet mine would enjoy this. Especially after seeing Jurassic Park.
These are such fun ideas. I will have to share this with my friends with little ones. I am sure they would love to try it.
Oh what fun. Looks like a blast for kids.
I am truly sorry he missed out on the movie but I am proud you guys researched it and did the right thing. Movies like this can haunt kids “Not the right age” for a long time. I love the craft you chose as a replacement and I am sure he did too!
Oh those little Dinosaur fossils are so cute! And it would be an awesome activity with the kids. Fun, artsy and educational all at once!
These look so cute! What an awesome idea! Perfect for an educational lesson too!
How innovative is this! This would be fun for a little boy who wants to make his own fossil…perfect timing for the Jurassic Park movie!
I’ve made a similar dough before for Christmas ornaments! This is such a creative use!
This is the cutest idea ever! I have not seen the movie yet but know the original intention was that the film would be rated R. These days I sometimes leave theaters feeling there is a thin line between PG13 and R! No doubt you made a good call about keeping your son home and making these fun ‘fossils’ instead!
These are so cute! I know that my daughters will love to do this. Bookmarked!
Those are so cool. We have some tiny dino’s. They hang out in our fairy garden from time to time. This would be a fun little project to do.
This is such a cool activity for kids. My 7 year old daughter loves dinosaurs and would love to do this with her friends.
When my son was younger he was obsessed with dinosaurs. We had dinosaurs everywhere. 🙂 I wish I had done this with him back then. My husband took him to see Jurassic World last weekend and it brought up all those memories of him playing with and learning all about dinosaurs.
Your fossils are so cute! I know my little paleontologists would get a kick out of making those with me this summer.
How cute is that! My kindergartener would just adore this diy project.
How cute! You could use any thing to make an imprint and make special ornaments or necklaces out of them.
Oh my gosh, my nephew would love these! I can’t wait to do this with him when we visit in a few weeks!
What a great idea. My grandson loves dinosaurs too. He would have so much fun doing something like this.
I love this dinosaur project! My kids would really enjoy making their own fossils!
These are all such fun ideas. My son really likes dinosaurs. We can do these over the summer.
Oh this is the perfect craft for my kiddos today! It’s raining and quite nasty outside! They’d enjoy this!! Thanks for sharing!!
What a fun activity!!
Snagging this to share with my day home friends.
They would get a kick out of matching them with the plastic figure.
These fossils are such a great idea! My grandsons certainly have plenty of plastic dinosaurs to make fossil with!
Wonder if the dinosaur figures would stick into the dough if you left them in it. Think that would look cool as well. And great tip about the wax paper.
I have a 6 year old grandson coming to visit. These will be a perfect craft for us to do together!
What a very fun craft idea to do and make our own Dinosaur fossils. I know that my niece and I would have so much fun making these!
My great-= niece is 5 years old and loves dinosaurs too. I am so glad that I read this before my nephew had a chance to take her to the movies to see Jurassic World!! These “fossils” are genius and a craft I know she will just love. The messier the better! The other crafts you have shared look cute too, esp the eggs!