Dinosaur Footprints: Preschool Measuring Activity

This simple preschool activity is a fun way to help your preschooler practice measuring and see how HUGE some of the dinosaurs were by making your own T-Rex footprint and comparing it to your family members’ feet.

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Little boys and dinosaurs…they go together like peanut butter and jelly. And my preschooler is hanging with the best of the dinosaur-lovers right now. He has requested a “dinosaur world” cake for his birthday next month and is constantly stomping around the house, roaring, and proclaiming himself to be a hungry T-Rex. That boy cracks me up.

To build on my son’s current interest/obsession, I planned a dinosaur-themed preschool week for our at-home “mommy school.” Fun fact: When you build learning around your child’s interests, their engagement skyrockets, and learning becomes so much more effective!

We’ve been:

• Reading dinosaur books
• Sorting dinosaurs by diet (herbivore vs. carnivore)
• Talking about how they move
• Singing dinosaur songs
• Exploring simple hands-on activities

Today’s activity might be our favorite so far. It was inspired by a fabulous non-fiction picture book we’ve been reading this week: How Big Were Dinosaurs? by Lita Judge.

It’s a Beehive Book Award Nominee for 2016, and we loved learning about some lesser-known dinosaurs as well as some of my son’s favorites. It’s great because it talks about how big (and small) various dinosaurs were in comparative terms that are easier for kids to understand.

The book was a great start, but I thought to myself: How great would it be if he could REALLY see the size of dinosurs in real life? Now, I had no intention of building a full-scale model in my living room, but I wanted to create an activity that would make the measurements more concrete for him. Something he could stand next to. Something he could measure.

That’s how our T-Rex footprint measuring activity was born.

How to Make a Life-Size T-Rex Footprint (Easy Preschool Activity)

Materials:

• large sheet of paper (we love the rolls you can get at IKEA, but any butcher paper or a poster board would work)
• pencil/marker
• measuring tape
• tape
• shoes
• Other miscellaneous objects (optional)

Instructions:

1. Step 1: Measure the footprint. Lay out your paper and measure the size of your T-Rex foot. According to Enchanted Learning, a T Rex footprint was about 3.3 feet (1 meter) long and 1.55 feet (46 cm) wide. I had Little Man help hold the measuring tape while we marked the measurements.
2. Step 2: Sketch out your footprint. I just free-handed my footprint based on an image I found here. I’m not claiming that it’s super scientifically accurate, but I was more concerned with the overall measurements than the exact shape. Once we had a basic shape, I traced over it in marker and cut it out. Tip: Tape your footprint to the floor (this was important for us because the paper kept rolling up when we tried to leave it loose).
3. Step 3: Compare shoe sizes to the T-Rex foot. Gather up a shoe to represent every member of your family. Start with your child’s shoe, and measure how many of his/her shoes you can fit from heel to toe inside the footprint. For my preschooler, it was five. Then, do the same measuring with each family member’s shoe. Here are our results:
   • Daddy’s shoe fit 3 times
   • Mom’s shoe fit 4 times
   • Preschool son’s shoe (age 4) fit 5 times
   • Little brother’s shoe (age 2) fit 6 times
4. Step 4: Discuss! This simple comparison sparked so many great conversations:
   • Why did Daddy’s shoe fit fewer times?
   • What does that tell us about shoe size?
   • Who has the biggest foot? The smallest?
   • How many preschooler shoes equal one Daddy shoe?

Without even realizing it, we were working on so many skills:

• Measurement
• Comparison
• Counting
• Early multiplication concepts
• Critical thinking

He was so proud of our discoveries that he insisted we leave the footprint out to show Daddy when he got home from work that night.

Extend the Learning: More Ways to Use Your Dinosaur Footprint

If your child is still excited (and mine definitely was), try using your T-Rex foot to measure other objects around the house:

• How many T-Rex feet long is the couch?
• The kitchen table?
• The hallway?

Or, see how many of other objects around the house will fit inside your footprint, like toy cars, wooden spoons, etc. Lots of learning wrapped up inside one big dinosaur-sized game!

More Dinosaur Activities for Preschool

Want more fun dinosaur learning activities? Try these:

• Dig for salt dough dinosaur bones
• Trace letters with mini dinosaurs
• Learn shapes with dinosaurs
• Make dinosaur tracks with paint