One of the things that all of my kiddos love to play with is dinosaurs! It doesn’t matter if they are big or small, realistic or solid colored; they love them all the same.
At the beginning of 2020 I posted this quick and simple activity featuring dinosaurs and it has become one of my most popular posts! It is also a favorite of my littles. So I thought, why not recreate it with a bit of a challenge? Thus, Balancing Dinosaurs Bridges was born!
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Here is what you need to get this simple activity set up:
Materials
- Wooden blocks (we are obsessed with our Smiling Tree Toys Alphabet Blocks!)
- Small Dinos – we have used these counters and these dinos too!
- Craft sticks – we have used the small and jumbo sized sticks, but these jumbo ones are definitely easier for little hands to work with.
How To
This is the fun part! Set out your blocks, craft sticks, and dinos and let your kiddos get busy!
If you have a toddler or preschooler, I would recommend setting up the blocks and craft sticks first and then just having them place the dinosaurs. That way, they don’t get overwhelmed with too many steps.
If your kiddo is a bit bigger (or loves to build), just set out the materials and let him create his own block set up.
Now, make sure those craft sticks are set around like bridges between the blocks. You can make it more challenging by changing levels (have a craft stick connect a single block and 2 stacked on top of one another).
Let The Magic Happen
No matter how many times we balance dinosaurs, it never gets old! my kiddos always find a new way to stack the blocks or place the dinos.
And those craft sticks add a whole new element to the play. I loved listening to my preschooler talk about the bridges and how the dinosaurs needed to get to the next block stack! This set up fostered some amazing imaginative play. And after they had balanced all of the dinos, an earthquake promptly knocked them off and the dinos had to rebuild, haha! Gotta love a good imaginative play session!
As a word of warning, the small craft sticks were quite a challenge for my 3 and 5 year olds. You need some super steady hands and careful placement to get a dino to balance on them. That being said, I would highly recommend getting the jumbo sticks for anyone under 5. It can be frustrating when the sticks keep falling. The point of the activity is to challenge fine motor muscles, but you don’t want your kiddos to give up if everything keeps falling. Jumbo sticks might be a good place to start (Check out the picture below).
And if the bridges are a bit too advanced for your littles, try starting here with our original Balancing Dinosaurs set up!
Looking for a way to extend the fine motor play AND get the toys cleaned up? I know, it sounds too good to be true, but I promise; it’s not! Check out how we do it here!
Thank you for reading sweet friend and, as always, you can find us on Pinterest and over on Instagram with our latest play activities. Give us a follow to stay up to date on what is keeping those little hands busy!
