Nurturing creativity is crucial for the future of our children. Giving our preschoolers fun creativity prompts and invitations to create help them develop, not only creativity, but also critical thinking and problem solving skills.
Preschoolers learn best through play and when following their own interests, which is why I often find myself surrounded by dinosaurs. My kids {2-12} all love dinos, and since we’ve already used their creativity by staging cornmeal “digs,” dinosaur play sets, and have made dinosaur fossils, I needed something new to spark their creativity.
The Dinosaur Island Creativity Prompt was born.
I picked up three 4-packs of cheap play dough instead of making my own, and so the colors weren’t perfect. I knew we wouldn’t be reusing this dough because it would get wet and mashed around, so I didn’t want to bother with expensive or homemade. Feel free to use whatever you have handy. I’m sure you could make some beautiful, natural island-like colors with homemade dough.
I set out an art tray for the base, fashioned a little bowl out of foil to serve as a watering hole for the dinosaurs, and set out plastic toy dinos, trees, and plants.
I challenged the girls to create their own interpretation of “dino island” and they went right to work. They smashed blue and yellow dough onto the tray to make the sand and the sea, while covering the outside of their foil lake with dough. My older daughter made a volcano by covering a play dough container with orange dough (there wasn’t any brown) complete with red lava flowing down the sides. The girls plan to erupt baking soda and vinegar from their volcano eventually.
Once the play dough island was all set up, the girls added their trees and shrubs, and introduced the dinosaurs to their new habitat. They played for hours, and my older son even joined in. In fact, one afternoon of creativity has led to at least an hour of focused, quiet, sensory play for my preschoolers every day for the last two weeks.
I’m not sure why I’m always so surprised by this, but it really is the simple open-ended activities that lead to the most enjoyment for kids. Do you have dinosaur lovers? Grab some dough and encourage them to create their own habitat for play dinosaurs.
Want more simple and fun creativity prompts for your kids to try? Check out Raising Creative Kids: A Collection of Simple Creativity Prompts for Children, an eBook filled with over 70 pages of ideas to spark your kids’ creativity using things you can find around your house.
Colleen is a former teacher of gifted children who prayed for nice, average kids. Since God has a sense of humor, she now stays at home to nurture creativity in her highly gifted children, trying desperately to stay one step ahead of them while writing about their adventures {and messes} at Raising Lifelong Learners. You can find her avoiding housework by playing around on Pinterest and chatting on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus.
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.
This looks so pretty! And there’s such a variety in a tiny space with a theme my boys love 🙂
This looks lots of fun!
Neat idea. I love that this can be done in a small space. I totally agree with you on open-ended play and think kids learn so much from it. Thanks for sharing your dinosaur island.
This would make a great rainy day/snow day activity. I love that the kiddos can use their imagination and creativity in new ways. I would have never thought of using playdough like this.
I love this! My daughter has just got into playdough – but we haven’t yet discovered dinosaurs. I might have to get the box out of the cupboard and see what they think!