Come and join the different dinosaurs and find out what they are like. The rhyming text and eye-catching illustrations in this book are a wonderful way to introduce dinosaurs to even the smallest children. Every dinosaur is accurately depicted and the book carries the endorsement of the Palaeontology Department at the Natural History Museum.
Below, you can watch the story with Makaton signing
Ways to explore the story with your child
- As you are reading or watching the story together, create some actions to match the words, for example making your hands into the shape of a claw for the word ‘roar’. You could try joining in with the Makaton signs in the video.
- Encourage your child to repeat the keywords in the story, such as ‘fierce’, ‘grumpy’ and, ‘strong’. Check that they understand what each word means.
- Point out the rhyming words for example strong and long, tiny and slimy, lunch and munch. See if your child can spot some more rhymes in the story, or think of other rhyming words.
- Look out for the small green dinosaur and see if you can find it on each page.
Dinosaur play!
After you have finished the story, try these dinosaur-themed activities together:
- Playdough: Use playdough (you could make your own) and see if your child can roll it into the shape of a dinosaur egg. You could suggest they make make the shape of a dinosaur tail and a dinosaur horn. Or maybe flatten the playdough out and see if they can use their fingers to create some dinosaur footprints in the dough. They could try using their whole hand to create a giant footprint.
- Songs and rhymes: Watch and sing along to the Do the Dino song from Boogie Beebies. Try to copy the actions and move like the different dinosaurs.
- Sing the story: Turn the book into a song by making up a tune and singing the words. Find out more in our blog about books with songs.
- Dino Directory: Visit the Natural History Museum website and discover facts, figures and images for more than 300 dinosaurs in their Dino Directory.
- More Dinosaur Roar activities: Visit the Dinosaur Roar website to find more exciting titles and try out some activities, including colouring sheets and a matching game.
Join in with Jess
Play the chatterbag game with Jess which is based on the book Say Hello to the Dinosaurs by Ian Whybrow and Tim Warnes. Have a go at naming and describing the different dinosaurs.
For older children
Create your own dinosaur! You could combine features from dinosaurs you have seen in the book, for example your dinosaur could have a long neck, a horn and scales along its back.
