Printable footprint cards paired with your toy dinosaurs. Kids stand each dinosaur on its own footprint, then press real tracks into a tray of damp sand.
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This one came out of a question at breakfast: 'Mum, do dinosaurs have feet like birds?' I did not know, so we printed footprints and found out together.
It works the same way as our safari silhouette cards — a real object matched to a printed shape — but the sand tray turns it into something my kids come back to for days.
They are now the household experts on which dinosaur walked on two legs. I am not.
Print and cut the footprint cards, and laminate them if you would like them to last.
The night before, lay the cards out on a tray with the dinosaurs beside them so it is waiting in the morning.
Invite your child to walk each dinosaur across the table and stand it on the footprint they think belongs to it.
Talk about clues together: how many toes, how big the animal is, whether it walks on two legs or four.
Bring out the tray of damp sand and press each dinosaur's feet into it to make real tracks — then compare with the printed cards.
Turn it into a story: make a trail of tracks across the sand and ask your child to work out which dinosaur passed by and where it was going.
Brush the sand smooth and start again, or bury a dinosaur and let them excavate it with the brush.
Want more? Browse all our free printables for kids.
Damp sand holds a print far better than dry sand — add water a spoonful at a time until it clumps in your hand. If you do not have sand, a rolled slab of playdough gives beautifully crisp tracks.