While the children are learning about dinosaurs, have a dinosaur art day, when they can make dinosaur tracks. You will need tempera paints, liquid soap, paper, paper towels and a nearby sink. Pour the paint onto paper plates and mix in a few drops of liquid soap. Have the students make a fist, leaving their pinkie finger extended slightly, and dip the side of their hands into the paint. Press the paint onto the paper. The resulting track looks like it has a claw. Experiment with other ways to make tracks with their hands.
This activity is best done when students have discussed how animals are identified by their tracks. You will need several small models of animals, such as tigers, horses, frogs and so on, with realistic feet and hooves. You will also need play dough and a small amount of plaster mix. Have the students make an imprint of the animals' feet in play dough. Mix the plaster according to the manufacturer's instructions. Fill the imprints with plaster. When the plaster is dry, peel away the play dough and study the casts.
It is simple and fun to create prints of human feet to add to your animal tracks collection. Create parades of human tracks by taping a large piece of butcher paper to the floor, placing a pan with paint on one end, and a container of water with lots of towels on the other, and letting the kids step into the paint, one at a time, and walk across to the water to rinse their feet. Move the paint and water around to create curved and intersecting tracks.
You will need detailed, plastic animal models, tempera paint, paper and a few drops of liquid soap to make an animal parade. Pour the paint onto paper plates and mix in a little liquid soap. Allow the children to choose three or four animals and let them dip the animals' feet into the paint. They will then "walk" the animals across the paper. Once the paintings have dried, let the kids try to guess which prints belong to which animals.