This is a sponsored post on behalf of Amazon. Opinions are our own.
The Amazon Original Kids series, Dino Dana, will debut on Prime Video, Friday, May 26, in the U.S. and U.K.! The series is a follow-up to the 2015 Emmy Award-winning series Dino Dan: Trek’s Adventures. Dino Dana is geared towards preschoolers but my 9-year-old and I watched screeners of the first few episodes and we loved Dana’s adventures. The series combines live-action footage along with CGI animation and features two sisters and their adventures. If your kids are into dinosaurs and STEM then you’ll want to introduce them to Dana!
Dana is played by Michela Luci. She is a “paleontologist in training.” Her life changes after she receives the Dino Field Guide and begins to see dinosaurs all around her. The first episode takes place in the library where she runs up and down aisles of bookshelves protecting a Troodon dinosaur egg from a hungry T-Rex. I love the action in the show and that a young girl can see herself as a paleontologist! Dana reminds me of my daughter. She has a huge imagination, takes risks and is extremely active and adventurous.
To celebrate the launch of Dino Dana, created by J.J. Johnson (Dino Dan, Annedroids), Amazon asked me to create a” Dino-mite” craft for families with “lil’ saurouses”. I thought about creating fossils with clay or putting together a Dino Field Guide but the first Dino Dana episode inspired a DIY Dinosaur Egg craft. It’s easy to make. Parents can create the eggs with their kids or create them for the kids. Wouldn’t a mystery surprise be cool? Plan an outing to the park and host a Dinosaur Egg Hunt (or mystery hunt).
Ingredients:
1 Cup of used coffee grounds
1 Cup of all-purpose flour
¼ cup of sand or dirt
½ cup of salt
1 cup of water
Small Dinosaur figures
Mix all the ingredients together. Stir well. I added more flour because my mixture was really moist from the wet coffee grounds. I suggest playing around with the amount of water and/or flour. I’d also suggest playing around with food coloring to change the color of the “egg shell”.
Scoop up some of the mixture into your hand, place a dinosaur figurine into the mix, cover it well with more mix. Try to create a nice round egg shape. We created four eggs out of this mixture.
Air dry for a few day or speed up the process by baking them. I baked mine at around 170 for 15 minutes. Our eggs turned out a little flat because we dried them in the oven vs air-drying. But most kids don’t want to wait 3+ days to hatch their egg! I know I didn’t!
We went to the park and hatched these babies with our hands. What a neat surprise! If the eggs are hard to break with your hands then try smashing them with a mallet or hard object. Definitely, monitor your children!
With summer around the corner, this is a fun craft to plan! Throwing a dino-themed bash? This would be the perfect activity and fun goody item to send home with your guests.
Make sure to watch Dino Dana for more scientific adventures and I’m sure each episode will inspire a new craft idea. I even suggest creating a field guild for your kids who can fill it with the information they learn from the show.
