Camp Watkinez: Dinosaur Week

Dinosaur week went great!  To be honest, I was a bit nervous on how to keep this 6-year old entertained.  Luckily, he was already excited about it, and we actually had fun. 

A huge thank you to Pinterest!  I couldn't have done it without all the ideas and free printables out there.  Here is a breakdown of our prehistoric week:

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Day One: Crafts

Dinosaurs A-Z from PBS' Dinosaur Train
Wonderul, glorious PBS offers the Dinosaur alphabet song and free printables from their hit TV show, Dinosaur Train.  Brody seems to have outgrown the show, but that doesn't make the dino-alphabet any easier.  Even I had a tough time singing along!  The free printables are really colorful and perfect to test memory.  Oh and the song?  Still stuck in my head.

Dinosaur Bones from PBS' Curious George
PBS hooks it up again with this free printable of fossil bones.  The Brodster colored them and them pasted them together to form the dinosaur.  He also created a story for the prehistoric creature, claiming he is not a meat eater (though I'm pretty sure it's a Velociraptor, but what do I know?).  He hummed the theme song to Jurassic Park while working on this, so I'm assuming he enjoyed it.

Dinosaur Baby Toy
For each week, I wanted to have something that Brody could work on for his little brother/sister.  This week was a soft plush dino toy.  I used my own pattern for this dinosaur toy (meaning I just eyeballed it and sewed it with no regard to measurements...I'm lazy), but click here for a great tutorial.  The Brodster was in charge of the stuffing.  Voilà!  An orange stegosaurus just for baby Watkinez!

Day Two: Dress Like a Dinosaur

Costume Day
Brody became a dinosaur today!  I thought he wasn't going to be interested, but after making the stuffed toy the day before, he was all for getting a tail of his own! Inspired by this tutorial, the Brodster became a Brodysaurus!  He had to have a mask, so we used this free template. How does he look?
Library Visit
The library is a must for this kids because he loves reading.  I always try to check for events at our local library, but if there aren't any for the week, we'll just read a few books and check out his favorites.  Sticking to the theme, we got three dinosaur books.  The Brodster found a great series of Dino books written by Lisa Wheeler: Dino-Baseball, Dino-Soccer, and Dino-Football.  He was bummed that we couldn't find the other two of the series (Dino-Basketball and Dino-Hockey), so he decided to write his own book when he got home: Dino-Race.  Man, this kid really makes it easy for me sometimes.

Day Three: Crafts Part 2

Dinosaur Pets
These 3D pets were so fun to make!  Free printables with Spoonful are great, but needed a bit of supervision.  Brody was able to color and cut the shapes, but the directions were a bit confusing so I helped out.  Younger than six would need a lot more help.

Dinosaur Guess Who
I found this kick ass link to Hasbro's Guess Who?!  Apparently, the site offers free printables for different themes, including dinosaurs!  Make sure your printer has ink because there is a ton of color and detail on the illustrations. NOTE: This is for the new versions of Guess Who?  The print outs won't fit the classic game (the one with the individual cards).

Dinosaur Puzzle
I used one of my old illustrations for this craft.  I printed out a black and white version of the illustration and had the Brodster color it.  I then cut along the puzzle lines and had him try to complete the puzzle.  Click here for the free printable!  See? Even I offer free stuff sometimes! :)

Dinosaur Book
I came across the free printable for the book, Dinosaur, Dinosaur What Do You See? so we jumped at the chance to make it into a book for the baby's library.  I printed the pages from the free printable onto normal copy paper.  The Brodster cut each image and pasted the pages in order on construction paper.  He has officially made a book to read to the baby!  Pretty awesome, right?

Day Four: Jurassic Picnic

We thought it would be a great day for a picnic, so we packed a lunch fit for a dino!  With dinosaur chicken nuggets, fruit, veggies, and lots to drink, we soaked up the southern California sun with a Jurassic picnic.  Abuela gave us a dinosaur version of Go Fish, which was perfecto.

Day Five: Movie Time!

How To Train Your Dragon 2
The movie opens today so it is a great way to end our dino week.  Lazy morning, catch the matinee showing, have a late lunch, and when we get home, I have free coloring pages ready for the Brodster's art desk.  Whew!  Dino week is DUNZO!

It was a fantastic and busy week, which explains the small amount of photos.  As fun as the week was, I am so ready for Saturday.  This was my first full week with my kid 24/7 since he was a newborn, and it was a lot busier than I expected.  It takes a lot to keep a kid entertained (especially when they wake up at 6am).

Next week is all about filmmaking for the Brodster, so let's see how long I can hold up with Camp Watkinez.  Stay tuned!