I love Montessori-Inspired dinosaur activities, and John Bowman’s Montessori at Home eBook (3rd edition) has a whole section on dinosaurs.
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Here’s an excerpt of part of the Montessori at Home dinosaur section:
Make Fossils
Fossils are how we get in touch with creatures from long ago, so why not make some? A Safari Ancient Fossils TOOB or a pack of plastic bugs from a discount or toy store, plus some Play Doh® will get your child’s fossil explorations started.
Hide the insects or play fossils in a bowl of beans for your budding paleontologist to find, as in the photo at left. Later, you can do more elaborate digs outside in a tub full of dirt or sand.
Photo: Chasing Cheerios
Press plastic insects down into Play Doh sheets, cut into separate ‘fossils’, and let the impressions harden overnight. Try different colors of Play Doh. Make name cards for the insects to add language. You could make a hole in each and make a string of fossils.
Photo: The Education of Ours
Fossil cookies are always a big hit. At
Photo: Chasing Cheerios
More fossil cookies at Homemade Mamas
The Dig it Up Excavation Kit – Tyrannosaurus Rex can be fun for a child who is seriously into dinosaurs. $12.95 on Amazon.
Dig out a virtual fossil online
Montessori style, self-contained dinosaur materials from Counting Coconuts. Free Dinosaur information cards from Montessori Print Shop. [Middle photo]: Punching dinosaur outlines with a pushpin. Your child can cut these with scissors if she is ready. Get free dinosaur, and other, outlines at Enchanted Learning. [Bottom photo] Cleaning a dinosaur.These are great examples of creating language, fine motor, and Practical Life materials around a theme. You can do the same with many themes – holidays, other animals, plants, family trips, almost any subject your child is interested in.
Fossils are how we get in touch with creatures from long ago, so why not make some? A 
Excerpt used with permission of John Bowman.
John Bowman’s Montessori at Home eBook (available exclusively as part of the Montessori at Home eBook and Materials Bundle in the Living Montessori Now shop) is filled with amazing ideas for families.
The Montessori at Home! eBook and Materials Bundle Available Exclusively on Living Montessori Now!
You can get a free download of 51 sample pages from Montessori at Home eBook by clicking here! (This includes information on John’s simplified Montessori reading sequence.)
Here’s the direct link to the purchase page for the Montessori at Home! Materials Bundle,which includes the Montessori at Home eBook AND over $60 worth of Montessori Print Shop materials to go with the book (now only $14.95)!
- Phases of the Moon (3-part cards & chart)
- Animals of the Continents
- Continents 3-Part Cards
- Land & Water Form Photo Book
- World – Control Maps, Masters and Labels
- Moveable Alphabet – Print – (includes full instructions)
- Sentence Cards – Step 1 – Set 1
- Word and Picture Cards – Step 1 – Read Pictures
- 1-100 Math Series
- Geometric Matching Cards
- Geometric Solids 3-Part Cards – Blue
- Skeleton Nomenclature Cards
- Tree Nomenclature Cards
- Phonics Sound and Picture Sorting
- Association of Objects
- What Does Not Belong
- The Five Senses
- Plant or Animal?
- Animals and Their Names
- Color Grading Cards
- Metal Insets – Shape Outlines
Excerpts and Activities from the Montessori at Home eBook
you can read all the excerpts from the book that I’ve shared here at Living Montessori Now:
Activities with Marbles and Golf Tees from Montessori at Home!
Building a Flashlight and Pipe Building from Montessori at Home!
1000-10,000 Activity from Montessori at Home!
Make Fossils from Montessori at Home! 
Cutting with a Knife from Montessori at Home!
Free Play Tubs (Sensory Bins) from Montessori at Home!
Create an Attractive Home Environment from Montessori at Home!
Concentration and Normalization from Montessori at Home
How to Prepare a Montessori Jar for Meaningful Preschool Activities at Home (an activity prepared using one of the book’s printables)
Allow Time for Repetition and Concentration from Montessori at Home!
Activities Using Some of the Montessori Print Shop Materials from the Montessori at Home eBook and Materials Bundle
Here are activities I published using just 4 of the 21 Montessori Print Shop materials from the Montessori at Home eBook and Materials Bundle:
Montessori-Inspired Phases of the Moon Playdough Tray
Easy-to-Prepare Montessori Animals of the Continents Activity
Extending Montessori Animals of the Continents Work
Hands-on Fun with Montessori-Inspired Human Skeleton Activities
Seashell Color Matching {Easy-to-Prepare Variation of Montessori Color Box 3}
Again, John Bowman’s Montessori at Home eBook is available exclusively as part of the Montessori at Home eBook and Materials Bundle in the Living Montessori Now shop!
Learn more about my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to. Teach Grace and Courtesy!
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Deb, I cannot tell you how much I look forward to Mondays. I am always agreeably surprised by your choice of topic for your post. Dinosaurs will be part of our May unit at Sorting Sprinkles so this was such a wealth of info for me. And thank you so much for featuring us again on Facebook with our Trains Mini-Unit. By the way, I am glad your wrist is healing well and that surgery was relatively “easy”. 🙂
Thanks so much for your kind comment, Valerie! And I’m glad this comes at the right time for you! 🙂
Great post, Deb! Makes me want to hunt some fossils myself!
Thanks, John! I love dinosaur activities in general, and I really appreciate your permission to use this great excerpt! (I noticed that my dinosaur-loving son-in-law “liked” this post on Facebook.) 🙂
You’re a genius!!! Little one and I recently visited a children’s museum, and they had an excavation/fossil area. Needless to say, my son loved it!!! I even bought dinosaur skeletons for him…. now I can make a fossil for him with play dough. Thank you for the wonderful idea!
Thanks, Frances! Actually, John Bowman, Chasing Cheerios, The Education of Ours, and Counting Coconuts are the geniuses, since these are their activities and ideas. So much fun to put together, though! 🙂
Thanks for hosting again! I love getting my Monday inspiration from your site
Thanks so much! I love to get inspiration from your blog, too! 🙂
I cannot wait until I have some time to really explore this post as my 3 year-old has gotten quite interested in fossils lately!
What a great round-up of ideas! My older two kids would love to do some of these. Thank you for sharing with us at Share It Saturday!
Visiting from Tuesday Tots. My Family-Focused Monday hop is live now and I would love to see one of your awesome posts linked up @ http://www.mondaykidcorner.blogspot.com.
Have a wonderful week.
I love this idea! Thanks for sharing! I would like to invite you to come link up this post on my Money Saving Monday Link Up.
Stephanie
lifesallaboutlittleadventures.blogspot.com
So many fun fossil ideas- love it! Did you see our 3D plaster of paris ones we made a couple weeks ago? My son put it up in his room as a work of art =) Who knew fossils were art!
Thanks for linking up to TGIF! Hope to see you linked up again today =)
Have a great weekend,
Beth =)
What a fun activity!! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!!
Visiting from the Sunday Showcase. I’d love for you to share your family-friendly crafts and ideas at Monday Kid Corner at thejennyevolution.com. See you at the party!
Jennifer
This is a great collection of activities. Thank you for sharing in the Discover & Explore linky. I’m featuring this post today on Fantastic Fun and Learning.
Your posts are always such wonderful resources! What a treasure trove of ideas. Thanks for linking up to Discover & Explore this week!