DIY Dinosaur Habitat

Create a prehistoric habitat for your paper mache T-Rex! Once complete, you’ll have an awesome project that you can play with, too! Read below for the complete instructions to make your own.

Materials Needed:

• Paper Mache T-Rex Kit
• Red, brown and green washable paint
• Scissors
• Green and blue felt
• Hot glue gun (always ask an adult to help you use a glue gun!)
• Fuzzy sticks
• Pom poms

How To:

Step 1: Decorate your T-Rex! The Paper Mache T-Rex kit comes with everything you need to decorate your T-Rex. We used green washable paint to paint the body. Next, we chose eyes from the kit and glued them on. We bent purple fuzzy sticks into a zig zag shape and glued these along the T-Rex’s spine. Finally, we painted some purple dots on his back! You can decorate your T-Rex any way you like! This kit has so many different options to make it uniquely yours.

Step 2: Once your dinosaur is finished, remove everything from the kit box. We used the box from this kit to create the T-Rex habitat! Start by cutting the lid off of your box with scissors. Next, cut the front of the box off so that it has three sides and is open across the front. Cut the lid into the shape of a volcano, but don’t glue it on just yet!

Step 3: Paint your volcano. We used brown washable paint to paint the entire volcano shape first. Once the brown paint dried, we used red paint to add lava dripping down from the top of the volcano. Allow your cardboard to dry on a flat surface to prevent curling.

Step 4: While your volcano dries, use green felt and your hot glue gun to completely cover the inside and outside of the box from your T-Rex kit. Cut felt pieces to cover each area of the box and then glue them on. You can also glue fuzzy sticks along the seams where two pieces of felt come together if you want to hide them.

Step 5: Once it has dried, use your hot glue gun to glue the volcano into the back of your box. You can now use red, orange and pink fuzzy sticks to make it look like your volcano is erupting! Glue these to the back of the volcano, sticking up! We also glued some sequins from the T-Rex kit onto the fuzzy sticks to add detail.

Step 6: Cut a piece of blue felt into the shape of a pond. Glue this onto the floor of your dinosaur habitat. Glue some fuzzy sticks around the border of your pond and glue on some pom poms to look like rocks.

Step 7: Bend some green fuzzy sticks to look like plants! Glue these into the corners of your box on either side of the volcano. You can also bend some blue fuzzy sticks into cloud shapes and glue these onto the sides of the volcano.

Step 8: When your habitat is complete it is time to add your T-Rex!

Add a little STEAM!

Here is an idea for how you can extend your learning with this project:

• Do some research about the T-Rex and the habitat where it used to live! Write up an information card, like you would see at a museum, with what you have learned. Display this with your model so that you can share your learning with others!