Dino Discoveries: Engaging Learning Activities for Toddler Sized Paleontologists

The dino obsession hit hard in our house, and we’ve been loving it. I’ll share all the fun things we’ve been doing the past two weeks to encourage play-based learning with Brylee’s new favorite topic. I try to use items we already have around the house, but for this theme I was able to think ahead and included some of the items on Brylee’s Christmas list. Throughout this post, I’ll link what we have so you can find the same or similar items to recreate the learning activities for your littles.

I have mixed feelings about screen time. While I recognize that it can often serve as a distraction for parents seeking a quiet moment to be productive, I also believe it has educational potential. That said, not all screen time needs to be educational—after all, we enjoy family movie nights and binge-watch her favorite shows when she’s sick. I think moderation is key. We try to limit our TV time to 30 minutes a day. Our daughter’s interest in dinosaurs started with the PBS show Dinosaur Train, which I liked for its engaging and educational content, perfectly aligning with the screen time I felt comfortable with allowing on a daily basis. Then, one day while browsing Prime Video, I discovered her new favorite show, Dino Dana. I love Dino Dana for the same reasons we enjoy Dinosaur Train, but it also introduced real characters who used their imagination to explore and learn about dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures through fun dino experiments. There’s also a spin off of the show called Dino Dex, following Dana’s little brother Dexter and Dino Dana The Movie. If your kids are into dinosaurs like mine, I highly recommend these!

Brylee was gifted this dinosaur bones puzzle set for Christmas. It was designed to fit the TROFAST IKEA sensory bins. This is a great option for combining the dinosaur theme, talking about paleontologists do, working on fine motor skills, problem-solving, and recognizing shapes. We combined ours with some blue kinetic sand we already had. If I were to make any changes, it would be to buy kinetic sand that isn’t colored. The blue rubs off on her hands, but I’ll take the easy clean up of kinetic sand everyday over having normal play sand inside. Any sensory play is often done before my son wakes up in the morning or while he’s napping. This allows me to watch Brylee from a distance and keeps me from worrying about him choking on any pieces. Between teething and him being in the mouthing stage, I don’t allow any choking hazard toys to be at his level or out while he’s awake.

I was scrolling Pinterest for some inspiration and found MAGNA-TILES had a free PDF of 2D dinosaur building plans. I used these as inspiration and used the MAGNA-TILES we had to create similar puzzles for Brylee. I used some butcher paper we had to lay out the tiles in shapes similar to the dinosaurs, traced the outline in pencil, then taking one tile off at a time I drew the individual shapes. I then traced all the pencil outlines in Sharpie. This created a larger “puzzle” she could physically lay the MAGNA-TILES on top of. The free printables from MAGNA-TILES had a beginner level, but it would’ve printed out on letter size paper and would’ve been more difficult for her to try to build and play independently. To say she enjoys combining her love for dinosaurs, MAGNA-TILES, and puzzles is an understatement. She has asked to play with these at least three times a day since I made them for her. If you have a set of mini magnetic tiles, you could follow the exact same steps I did and hang the paper on your refrigerator for some extra fun. Unfortunately, we only have the original MAGNA-TILES and the dinosaurs I drew are too big to fit on our fridge.

I found this cute dinosaur number match idea from Taming Little Monsters and put my own spin on it. I drew out my dinosaur parts on cardstock and colored them in using these acrylic paint pens from Amazon. I cut my paper plate in half and colored it with a crayon, before gluing the head and tail of my dinosaur on. I used an empty toilet paper roll to put the legs on and help hold up the plate for Brylee. I knew working on the pincer grip with the mini clothes pins would be tough enough and wanted to make sure the plate would be more stable. Finally,I painted the clothespins, then wrote the numbers on both the clothespins and the paper plate. Brylee is getting good at matching her numbers and loves the challenge of trying to master the mini clothespins.

For Brylee’s toddler learning journal I start by writing out skills she’s working on and then trying to get creative with combining those skills with our topic. She’s currently working on counting objects to five, number matching to 10, number identification to five, the letters of her name, horizontal and vertical lines, and basic shape matching/identification. Below are the activities I came up with and realistic after pictures of doing them with a toddler.

Finally, these dinosaur bath toys. They don’t have any holes, so mold won’t be a problem. Brylee has been working on identifying the different dinosaurs by name, plays with them in the bath, taken them in the car, played pretend and tried reenacting scenes from Dino Dana, used a kids camera she got for Christmas to take pictures of them playing with her toys, and tried scare her brother with a good RAWR. They have been a great addition to our toy collection!

Our dinosaur-themed activities have not only sparked Brylee’s curiosity, but have also helped develop essential skills through play-based learning. By blending creativity with everyday items and a bit of inspiration from others, we’ve created a fun and educational environment that keeps her engaged and eager to learn. I encourage you to explore your child’s interests together and find creative ways to to turn those interests into valuable learning experiences. Whether it’s through puzzles, sensory play, or imaginative games, the key is to enjoy the process and make learning fun. Feel free to share your own ideas and inspirations in the comments below—I’d love to hear what your little one’s current obsession is!