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Welcome back to Pondering Playtime, my fortnightly series where I share a favourite picture book and a craft or play activity to go with it. This week, I’ve chosen 
, and created a swampy dinosaur tuff spot.
Tyrannosaurus Drip is about a little dinosaur who accidentally ends up hatching into the wrong family after his egg is stolen by a scatty Compsognathus. Julia Donaldson has employed her best rhyme and rhythm to create a really enjoyable dinosaur story, set in a swamp.
This tuff spot activity was pretty easy to set up. I simply mixed water, cornflour and food colouring in a bowl, then poured it into the tuff spot. I added some plastic dinosaurs and trees, which we already had around the house, and hey presto! One duckbill dinosaur swamp.
You will need:
When we first got this book almost a year ago, M had no interest in it whatsoever. She’d sometimes ask to read it, but lose interest after the first page or two. However, since then, she’s begun to take more interest in dinosaurs as recently we’ve bought an annual pass to a dinosaur-themed attraction, which is local to us. This new-found interest has meant that she’s started asking to read Tyrannosaurus Drip and enjoys following the story all the way until the end.
M adores her tuff spot and when I told her I’d set up an activity for her, she couldn’t wait to see what it was. We deliberately wore old clothes for this (which was wise, as she was pretty much covered in green goop by the end of it). M went to find a spoon herself, so that she could investigate the cornflour ‘swamp’ further.
Mixing cornflour and water creates a non-Newtonian fluid. This means that it behaves as both a liquid and a solid, depending on the circumstances. For example, even though it appears as a liquid and will drip through your fingers, if you put it under stress (i.e. roll it, hit it etc.). While M is too young to understand the science of this, it still made an interesting sensory experience for her.
If you enjoyed this, you can find more Pondering Playtime activities here, and you might like to join my Early Years craft and activity Facebook group; Play Craft, Explore. We’d love to have you! And lastly, don’t forget to Pin it!
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