This is a great way to make HUGE, hatchable, papier-mâché dinosaur eggs. If you make a bunch of these eggs a few days in advance, they can be decorated at a party.
- One balloon for each dinosaur egg
- A lot of old newspaper and/or brown-bag paper
- Flour-water glue (instructions below)
- Paints (tempera works well) and markers
Instructions
Make a simple, thin glue from flour and water (boiling gives it a nice consistency). Mix 1 cup of flour into 1 cup of water until the mixture is thin and runny. Stir into 4 cups of boiling water. Simmer for about 3 minutes, then cool.
Have children tear a lot of strips of newspaper and/or brown bag paper. Strips should be about 1 inch wide; the length doesn’t really matter.
For an extra special dinosaur egg, put a small, plastic dinosaur inside the balloon before blowing it up.
Blow up a balloon for each child.
Dip each strip of paper in the flour glue and wrap around the balloon. Have at least two layers surrounding the balloon. Let it dry (at least overnight) after each layer.
Let the dinosaur egg dry for a few days. When it is dry, you can pop and remove the balloon from inside the egg.
After the dinosaur egg is completely dry, decorate with paint or markers. Let the children know that no one knows what color the dinosaurs’ eggs were. Also, some dinosaurs dug nests out of sandy soil and some just laid their eggs on the ground. Maybe the eggs were camouflaged to blend in with twigs, sand, mud, or fallen leaves. For more information on dinosaurs, click here.
You can later “hatch” your egg and find a tiny dinosaur!
