I absolutely love tuff spots, they are an amazing resource and so versatile! If you follow my Instagram then you will know that we do tuff spots on a regular basis. Take a look at a couple of my favourites like; mirrored tuff spots, ice painting, mud kitchen and dry foods. I still have lots more tuff spots that I need to write up but you can always follow our Instagram account to see them there first!
What did we put into our dinosaur tuff spot?
- Sand
- Grass
- Leaves and branches
- Rocks and pebbles
- Soil
- Water
- Pineapple
- Dinosaurs (smaller ones from Addo Play at The Entertainer)
How this aids child development
There are lots of things that children can learn from playing with dinosaurs. This dinosaur tuff spot is a fab activity if you don’t have much to hand. Here’s some ways that playing with dinosaurs can aid a child’s development.
Science – talking about theories of extinction, the needs of living things, carnivores and herbivores. You can also go on to talk about volcanoes and climates; it’s so easy to delve into different subjects once you get going.
Mathematics – incorporating maths into dinosaur play is incredibly easy to do. Using words/phrases like; ‘bigger than’;‘smaller than’; ‘as heavy as’; etc. Measurement and scale are a big part of mathematics, so getting children used to the concept early on can make it much easier to understand later with more in depth analysis.
Vocabulary – you need words other than ‘big’ to use when describing dinosaurs. Now is the perfect time to introduce words such as ‘gigantic’, ‘huge’, ‘enormous’, ‘massive’ and ‘colossal’. It’s also great to start suggesting and explaining what other words mean that might not normally crop up in conversation. These can be words like;
- fossil
- extinct
- prehistoric
- fierce
- jurassic
- evidence
- scientific
- palaeontology
- evolve
Lets also not forget the names of the dinosaurs as well. When speaking with children you will be amazed at how many they remember or know. I don’t know how many times I have been caught off guard by not knowing the names of all the dinosaurs that ever lived.
Imagination and creativity – Because we don’t have a Jurassic park and we have never seen a real life dinosaur, a lot of imagination comes into play. Children use their explosive imagination and their limitless creativity to bring out the any kind of play involving dinosaurs. There are no right or wrong when children are playing, because they are bringing out their imaginations. But when it comes to dinosaurs the imagination can run wild with the sounds and actions of what the dinosaurs might actually have been like; the best bit.. we will never know!
Why not pair it up with a few books about dinosaurs too? One of our favourites is I Explore Digging for Dinosaurs!
Grab your own Digging for Dinosaurs book from Books & Pieces! Plus you can get a discount if you use the code RAW10! Nico actually loves this book, not so much my reading though; he just likes looking at the pictures!
I hope we have managed to show you just how much children can learn from dinosaur play and if you try it yourself then please do tag us in your photo so we can see! We will be doing more activities relating to dinosaurs soon so keep your eyes peeled!
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