We made our own Dragon or Dinosaur feet out of empty cereal boxes and craft foam.
As the weather gets cooler, it is good to have a variety of indoor active play activities on hand to keep kids moving, exercising, and working on their gross motor skills. On miserable days when it is too wet or snowy to go outside, we often watch and participate along with Bo and Desidore Dragon from the Kids' CBC show Bo on the Go.
Materials:
- two empty cereal, cracker, or cookie boxes (we used Baby Mum-Mum boxes)
- green paint
- 2 large sheets of green craft foam
- cream coloured craft foam (optional)
- glue
- scissors
Directions:
1. Glue the open end of each box closed. Paint bottom and all sides of each box green:
2. Apply a second coat of paint, if necessary:
3. Turn boxes over. Use scissors or a craft knife (an adult's job) to cut an oval opening large enough to fit a child's foot into in the top of each box:
4. Draw a dinosaur or dragon shaped footprint large enough to completely cover each box on a sheet of green craft foam. Cut out:
5. If desired, cut out toe nail shapes from cream craft foam and glue onto the top of each dragon toe (Desi Dragon doesn't actually have visible toe nails, but we liked the look they gave our feet):
6. Glue a foam foot onto the top of each box, covering the opening. Use scissors or a craft knife (an adult's job) to cut an "X" into the top of each foam dinosoar foot so that your child can slip his or her foot into it:
Here is what the feet look like from the side:
Slip on your feet, and you'll be ready to exercise right along with Desi and Bo as you watch "Bo on the Go". Here are a few activities to try with your feet:
- turn on dinosauar music ("We are the Dinosaurs" by Laurie Berkner is a favourite here) and stomp around the house like dinosaurs
- count how many "dinosaur feet" it takes to cross the room. Compare this with the number of your regular footprints fit across the room
- try turning around, walking backwards, and jumping up and down with your dragon feet on. The feet make all of these gross motor activities an extra (fun!) challenge
- make extra sets of feet and have a dragon race with your friends
- create dinosaur feet in different sizes, and see whether it is easier or more difficult to walk in larger feet
