I'm a Dirty Dinosaur by Janeen Brian and Ann James (An Usborne Book)

Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living

My preschoolers are loving our new books from Usborne Books.  I’ve already told you how much we loved Volcanoes by Stephanie Turnbull.  You can find that review here along with a few free printables to go with it.  Today, we want you to know how much we loved I’m a Dirty Dinosaur by Janeen Brian and Ann James.

I'm A Dirty Dinosaur

This book is a great combination of two childhood obsessions, dirt and dinosaurs.  Kids love to play outside and get dirty and they love dinosaurs so they will enjoy reading about a dinosaur who loves to get as dirty as they do.  The book has a colorful and appealing cover which is one of the reasons I chose it as one of our first reads.  It looked like a book my preschoolers would love.

Kids will read about a dinosaur who gets a dirty snout, a dirty face – dirty pretty much everywhere – and he doesn’t wash it off.  He shakes it off.  The already dirty dinosaur enjoys splattering mud too.  He sniffs, snuffs, stomps, shakes, and slides through out his journey from the first page til the last.

My preschoolers loved it.

One of the things I love about Usborne Books besides the great stories is the quality of their books.  The pages are thick and durable so they will last through many, many reads.  Usborne Books are great quality – colorful, appealing, durable, and educational.  You can’t beat them.

If you would like to watch a teacher read this book to her class, enjoy this video.  You will enjoy her Australian accent too!

I made a few counting printables to enhance my preschoolers reading experience with this book.

The following photo shows you the counting and coloring pages.  For the page on the left, kids count the dinosaurs in each row and then right the number in the square at the end of each row.  For kids who need a visual model, I have included the numbers 1 – 10 at the bottom of the page.  The page on the right is a simple coloring page.

Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living

The following photo shows dinosaur counting cards.  Kids look at each dinosaur and learn to recognize numbers.  They count the dirty spots on each dinosaur which corresponds to the number.

Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living

The next photo shows another counting activity.  Kids identify the number on the dinosaur card.  Then, they count out the dirt clots and place the corresponding number of dirt clots on each number card.

Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living

This last photo shows the smaller dinosaur images included in the printable.  After you cut out the dinosaur images, you can use them for color sorting activities or color graphing.  As I am typing this right now, I am thinking of other things you can do with these.  For example, you can laminate them and then write numbers on them.  Arrange the numbers in numerical order.  Write letters on them.  Arrange them in ABC order or arrange them to make words from the I’m A Dirty Dinosaur story.  You can make simple patterns with them.  You can probably think of all sorts of activities to make and do with those.

Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living

You can get a copy of my printable here:  Dirty Dinosaur Packet.