SMMARTideas

SMMART SCIENCE: DINOSAUR EGGS

Since January 7th is "Old Rock Day", I thought I'd stretch the "rock" motif and introduce these wonderful Dinosaur Egg ideas.  Children are so excited to break one of these open and find the baby dinosaur inside.

SALT DOUGH EGG
The first method is to enclose a small dinosaur toy in a handful of salt dough. 

SALT DOUGH (Ruth Asawa's recipe)
4 cups flour
1 cup Salt
1-2 cups Water
You can gradually add a little sand or dirt to the dough to create a more natural or "dirty" appearance.  Using 2 cups of wheat flour and 2 cups of white flour helps to create a more natural look too.

Press the salt dough into a flat cake and wrap around the dinosaur toy.  Press and mold the dough into an egg-looking shape.  Let the dough sit for a few days (turn over every day to make sure all of it dries) until the egg gets hard.

You can let your child decorate their egg with tempura or acrylic paints and let it dry. 

PAPER MACHE DINOSAUR EGG
You'll need:
Small Dinosaur Toy
Balloon (latex-not inflated)
Newspaper- cut into 2 inch strips
Flour, salt and water
Paint (spray paint to coat the egg and tempura for details)

Carefully slide a small dinosaur toy inside the mouth of an uninflated latex balloon.  Blow up the balloon slightly to the desired size of your dinosaur egg.

Prepare a paper mache mixture by putting a cup of flour, and a few Tb of salt into a bowl.  Gradually add water until you get a thin paste.  Dip the newspaper strips into the paste and slide the excess paste off between your fingers.  Lay the pasty strip of newspaper onto the balloon.  Continue the process until the balloon is coated in paper mache.  Let your Dinosaur Egg dry overnight or until dry.

Spray paint the Dinosaur egg a desired base color.  Let your child embellish the egg with tempura or acrylic paints.  They can add glitter and jewels if they want to bling their egg.

Hide the eggs in a back yard sandbox or inside the house in a bin or dry oatmeal flakes and Go for a Dinosaur Dig!  Watch the excitement as your child scrapes open their salt dough egg or rips into their paper mache egg to discover a special dinosaur baby toy!  They'll LOVE IT!