Today we’re making super fun shadow puppets dinosaur crafts!
I can still remember the first time my oldest little boy discovered his shadow. It was the cutest thing! He realized the shadow was following him and he could make it bigger or smaller depending on where he stood. There were so many giggles, both from him, and my mom and me from seeing his excitement. It’s been such a long time since I was a little kid that sometimes I forget how much fun it was playing with something like a shadow.
As I was trying to come up with more fun activities for kids to entertain my second little boy who’s four, I knew these shadow puppets dinosaur crafts would be a hit. I figured he would have fun playing with shadows and as long as it involves dinosaurs, he’ll enjoy it. He wants dinosaur everything! From playing dinosaur themed word games to eating dinosaur shaped snacks, it’s easy to get and hold his attention if there is a dinosaur connection. I have found limitless teachable moments by appealing to his imagination and his fascination with dinos. Check out my post on why you should encourage your child’s love of dinosaurs if you’re in the same boat.
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Shadow Puppets Dinosaur Crafts Materials:
- wooden dowels or popsicle sticks
- tape
- a printer (unless using a cutting machine)
- printer paper or black cardstock
- scissors or a Cricut cutting machine
Print out the dinosaur shadow puppets PDF ( this is available to our newsletter subscribers. Find the sign up form at the bottom of this post.) Then use scissors to cut out the shadow puppets. I’m not gonna lie – this is a little tedious and I hated doing it.
I would much rather use my Cricut Maker for cutting these dinosaur shapes. It took about two minutes for all of the dinosaur shadow puppets to be cut out. A PNG file of these dinosaurs is also available in the digital resource library. Download the file, upload it to the Cricut Design Space, select image type as simple, and then save it as a cut image.
Let the kids finish this dinosaur arts and crafts project
After you have the dinosaurs cut out, your little one can help finish this fun arts and crafts project. Have them use a piece of tape to attach a craft stick to the back of the the shadow puppet.
Pretty simple right? Here are all of the dinosaur shadow puppets included in the download.
Once all of your shadow puppet dinosaurs crafts are assembled, it’s time to play! Go into a dark room and bring a flashlight to make shadows on the walls.
I was really surprised with how much my little boy liked these shadow puppet dinosaur crafts. He spent way more time playing with them than I expected. And he couldn’t wait for his older brother to get home from school to show off how the dinosaur shadow puppets worked. Then they both played and had so much fun making up little stories to go along with an impromptu shadow puppet play. Dylan even took the dinosaur shadow puppets on a road trip so he could show them to the grandparents. I’d say this dinosaur activity was definitely a win.
These shadow puppet dinosaur crafts are available to our newsletter subscribers in our growing digital library. You can either print our the PDF page to cut the dinosaur shapes by hand, or download the PNG file for use with your cutting machine. Subscribe below to have full access to the entire digital library.
Don’t for get to check out some of our other fun dinosaur themed activities for kids like dino drool clear slime and diy salt dough dinosaur bones.
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