In this activity, we’ll be creating dinosaur models from cardboard! This can be a great activity for older kids to do on their own, or for littles to work on with a grown-up. At the end, you’ll have 3D dinosaur friends to decorate, play with and display.
What you’ll need:
- Cardboard or cardstock: these materials are cheap, and this can be a great opportunity to recycle some used cardboard.
- 8 ½ x 11 paper
- Scissors
- A pencil or pen
- Paper and a printer, if using templates
- Decorating and coloring supplies: crayons, markers, paints, etc.
Assembly instructions:
- To start, you’ll need to either print a dinosaur template, such as the ones found here or draw/create your own.
- To make a 3D dinosaur, make sure that your design has notches to piece the different sections together.
- Once you have a design on your piece of paper, cut it out and trace the outline of your dinosaur on some cardboard with a pencil or pen.
- Next, feel free to decorate before or after your design is pieced together. Here is where you can be creative; maybe your dinosaur wears a bowtie or has blue scales. You can also add eyes, claws or whatever else you’d like.
- Now, all that’s left to do is carefully cut out your design and piece it together, fitting the notches together to make a complete dinosaur.
The instructions, ideas and templates used in this activity were borrowed from the Science Museum of Minnesota and The Imagination Tree.
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