Do your kids love surprise eggs? I mean which kids don't really... If they also love dinosaurs then they'll love hatching playdough dinosaur eggs. There's so many fun ways to hatch dinosaur eggs, but playdough eggs are probably the easiest to make and to hatch. Plus they add a fun squishy, stretchy, sensory element.
Hatching playdough eggs is a fun sensory and fine motor activity rolled into one, plus it has the element of surprise that so many kids love. I'll show you exactly how to make playdough dinosaur eggs and how I set them up as an invitation to play. They'd also be a fun activity, or party favour idea, for a dinosaur themed kids party.
HOW TO MAKE DIY PLAYDOUGH DINOSAUR EGGS
Playdough dinosaur eggs are one of the easiest dinosaur play activities to do with preschoolers because you don't need lots of items and they only take a few minutes to put together. Technically mine are Playdoh dinosaur eggs because we cheated and used tubs of Playdoh, but they work just as well with any homemade playdough. They'd look really realistic if you used the sand or dirt playdough recipes in this post.
Materials to make playdough dinosaur eggs:
- Mini dinosaur figurines
- Playdoh or homemade playdough
- Plastic Easter egg {optional}
This activity is so easy to set up because it only really needs 2 items - mini dinosaur figurines and some playdough {either homemade or store bought}. You can use any playdough colours you like and can even mix them together to create a marbled egg.
When Easter's over, don't get rid of the plastic Easter eggs, keep them for this and many other fun activities that can be done all year round with plastic eggs. You can use plastic Easter eggs as a mould to make dinosaur eggs, however if you don't have any you can shape them with your hands. I've included instructions for both ways below.
How to make dinosaur eggs with Playdoh and a plastic egg
1. Fill one half of the plastic egg with Playdoh then bury the front of the dinosaur into the Playdoh.
2. Cover the other half of the dinosaur with Playdoh then add the other side of the plastic egg on top.
3. Carefully remove the Playdoh dinosaur egg from the plastic egg case. You'll need to smooth over the edges of the Playdoh where the two sides joined together.
This was the first way I tried making our dinosaur eggs and it took almost an entire tub of Playdoh to make one egg in order to fill the plastic egg. It was also a little tricky to remove the Playdough from the egg case, which is why it isn't a perfectly smooth egg shape. After making one I decided to try moulding my own eggs using just Playdoh and my hands to see if it was easier.
How to make dinosaur eggs with Playdoh
1. Roll out some Playdoh and put a dinosaur on top in the centre of the dough.
2. Start to shape the Playdoh around the base of the dinosaur.
3. Continue covering the dinosaur body and head with remaining Playdoh.
4. Shape the outside of the Playdoh until it looks like an egg.
Even though it looks like it takes longer, I found this way to be much easier. The eggs don't look like perfectly smooth eggs, however they were quicker to make as I didn't need to loosen them from the plastic egg. You can also use less Playdoh this way as you only need to use enough to cover the dinosaur.
As you can see they didn't turn out much different regardless of how I made them. I was trying to make the eggs and set up the activity as quick as possible {before my daughter could catch me making them} so I made the rest of ours with my hands. However, if you want your dinosaur eggs to all be the same size, then I'd use a plastic egg.
INVITATION TO PLAY: HATCHING DINOSAURS FROM PLAYDOH EGGS
Once I finished making the surprise Playdoh dinosaur eggs, I set them up in a small basket with an adult dinosaur {Pteranodon}. It kind of reminds me of the Pteranodon nest from Dinosaur Train, which is the girls favourite dinosaur show.
I didn't tell my 5yr old that I'd hidden baby dinosaurs inside the Playdoh, so I just gave her the nest and let her play with it however she wanted, to see how long it would take her to discover them. It didn't take her long as she immediately grabbed an egg and started pulling the playdough apart.
This is a great activity to develop hand strength and fine motor skills as kids use their fingers to stretch the playdough apart and pull it off the dinosaurs.
Learning Opportunities:
- Sensory Input {tactile and visual}
- Fine Motor Development
- Hand/Eye Co-ordination
- Language Development
- Emotional Regulation
- Imaginary Play
Once she'd opened all the eggs she re-hid the baby dinosaurs into the Playdoh herself and opened all the eggs again. She repeated this a few more times before matching the babies with their adult dinosaurs. She loved this activity so much she's already done it another few times since I initially set it up for her.
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