Dinosaur Counting and Measuring

In the second book of the Dinosaur Cove series, author Rex Stone’s main characters, Jamie and Tom venture back to Dino World on a mission to make a map; it was their quest in “Charge of the Triceratops” that inspired this activity.

I created a worksheet mapping out some of the landmarks mentioned in the story and in order to answer a series of questions, my son would need to count the steps from one to another.

Download this worksheet here. 

After counting his way around Dino World, I gave him two large dinosaur footprints I’d cut from posterboard; I used the theropod footprint on Nestlé Family’s website as a guide. The finished footprints were approximately 20 inches in height and 15 1/2 inches wide (I estimated the size based on a photo I found of a person standing with one foot inside a theropod footprint).

We talked about how the T-Rex was a theropod, how big their feet were, and how large their stride must have been.

Lastly, he answered some questions I’d prepared, estimating how many of his own feet would fit inside a theropod footprint and measuring with the “footprints” how many steps it would take a T-Rex to get around our house.

Download this worksheet here.

This was a fun activity to get my son counting and measuring and helped us both realize just how big dinosaurs really were.