Creative Play - DIY Baked Clay Dinosaur Activity

Welcome to 2021 here on the blog at BabyDonkie and I am excited to once again feature Lee, the amazing product stylist, visual content creator, blogger and shop owner from You Give Me Grace. Lee has kindly given us step by step instructions on how to create this fantastic Creative Play Dinosaur activity that you can do at home.

What you need:

• Scissors 
• 4 x 57g oven bake clay
• Skewer
• Chopstick 
• Baking Tray
• Baking paper
• Butter knife
• Coloured rice
• Lentils
• Cocoa powder
• Baby Donkie wooden toys

Step by step instructions:

Tree

1. Squeeze the entire pack and roll it into a ball.
2. Then roll into a thick sausage about 10 cm long.
3. Use scissors to cut along the sausage to the halfway point.  
4. Now cut along each side to create the 4 branches.
5. Cut the edge of each branch to make leaves. (Be careful not to cut all the way through.)
6. Use the pointy end of a skewer to make small holes in the centre of the tree.

Moss Rock

1. Squeeze the entire pack and roll it into a ball.
2. Roll into a sausage and cut off ¼.
3. Grab the biggest piece and shape into a rock with a flat bottom.
4. Roll the remaining piece into a long sausage.
5. Pull off small sections of the long sausage and roll each into a ball and push onto the rock. (you don’t need to cover the entire rock)
6. Use your skewer to push a hole into each ball to secure them onto the rock. 

Bones  

1.  Cut the pack in half (only use half for this project) 
2. Grab that half and cut into 5 equal pieces
3. Roll each strip into a ball.
4. Roll each ball into a 5cm sausage.
5. Gently push the side of the skewer onto the top of the sausage to make a dent creating two offshoots. Now do this also with the bottom of the sausage.
6. Repeat the above step until you have 5 bones.

Round rock formation

1. Cut the pack so you have a 1/3 piece and a 2/3 piece. 

2. Roll both sections into balls.

3. Using your palm push down on the largest ball creating a flat top and bottom. 
4. Make a sausage with the small piece.
5. Pull apart the sausage and make smaller sausages (rocks) and lay around the edge of the large piece layer by layer.

Then place all the clay onto a tray with baking paper and cook in the oven. (Most brands will be 130 degrees for approx. 50 mins – Check the packet for directions. Ensure no pieces of clay are touching each other.)

NB: the colour difference in the round rock formation is due to a different clay being used for final image.