Dinosaur Day🦖

It all begins under the apple tree, where a spotted egg cracks open and a little green dinosaur peeks out. It’s hungry, sad and growing far too quickly to hide in a wardrobe for long. Your child realises it needs to get home – and home is a very long way back in time.

Their journey takes them through forests of ferns taller than houses, past smoking volcanoes and across plains where the ground shakes as giant creatures walk. The little dinosaur can’t recognise its mum among all the giants, so your child looks for clues: a footprint, a call, a nest. You’ll have to read the book to find out what happens when they meet, and how your child gets home again.

This idea is for children who can reel off dinosaur names, have a whole box of toy dinosaurs or dig for bones in the sandpit. It also works for a child who has briefly lost sight of a parent in a shop and remembers how good it felt to find each other again.

A three-year-old may enjoy the contrast between big and small, the thunderous noises and the little dinosaur’s squeaks. An eight-year-old might want to know what kind of dinosaur it is and use their knowledge to work out where its mum could be.

If you have an apple tree, or another tree in your garden, the egg could be waiting right underneath it. Tell us which dinosaur your child likes best, and it could appear along the way. A sibling could help carry the egg, and the family dog might be the first to sniff it out.

After reading, you could talk about how dinosaurs laid eggs, just as birds do today. Birds are actually descended from dinosaurs, so look at a crow or a pigeon in the park and see if you can spot similarities in their feet and the way they walk. Find more prehistoric adventures under Dinosaurs.