Dinosaur Pasta Skeletons

Here are two ways to make dinosaur pasta skeletons with your preschool, pre-k, or kindergarten students.

Dinosaur Skeleton #1

First, download the printable skeleton at the link below, and cut out the pieces. Children will assemble and glue the paper pieces of the dinosaur skeleton to a piece of construction paper (12×18 size), and glue dry pasta on the skeleton.

The pasta pieces you will need are:

• Shell: for the skull
• Rigatoni: for the legs
• Fettucini: for the ribs
• Elbow (Macaroni): for the neck, backbone, and tail

Download: Dino Skeleton

The above activity and printable are reprinted here with permission from the owner of the former site “Kindernet Online”

Dinosaur Skeleton #2

Children pretend to be paleontologists who have discovered bones (the pasta) in the ground. We have to figure out how to put the bones together to make a dinosaur. Have children mash play dough flat on a plate. For younger children, its a good idea to use a dinosaur-shaped cookie cutter to make the outline of a dinosaur in the play dough. Then press pasta shapes (bones) into the play dough inside the outline to make a skeleton. Model Magic or self-hardening clay would also work well. The pasta can be removed and the children will see the imprint left in the play dough, which is like a fossil.