A great topic for both boys and girls! My boys love Dinosaurs, so we bought some really cool shaped biscuit cutters that included the bone structures! We decided not to make biscuits – and used Air Dry Clay instead!
We rolled out our air dry clay to about 5mm thick. We then pushed our dinosaur bone cookie cutters into the clay and wiggled it a little. Wiggling helps to loosen the clay a little so that they come out of the cutters a little easier. We got our shaped cutters from Ebay.
Once we had cut out all the Dinosaurs, we left them to dry for a good 24hrs. We then painted them with washes of paint – we got some good effects using very watered down paint as it fell into the bone shapes and looked darker in those parts.
We also used our cutters in play dough. Our play dough is from: Little Munchkins. It even smells of Rhubarb!
After we had painted our air dry clay shapes, we then took them out into the garden and created a small world discover tray to explore. We included sand and small cookie cutters, a spoon for digging and a magnifying glass. I added a book to read in the shade too. My boys were engaged in this for a good half an hour – burying the bones and some hidden treasure too!
Lottie Makes 