How to Make a Dinosaur Mobile

A hanging mobile is a great activity for children who are learning about dinosaurs. This hands-on activity encourages fine motor skills, art, and creativity. Items you'll need for each mobile are: 2 wire clothes hangers, masking tape, paper clips, and drawings or prints of different dinosaurs. Gather up your supplies and get started making this super cool decoration for your kid's bedroom or a teacher's classroom.

You can print out pictures of dinosaurs if you have a color printer. If you only have black and white ink, print out coloring page pictures of dinosaurs. Let the kids color them in and cut out each dinosaur.

If you have a laminator on hand, laminate the prints of the dinosaurs so they will last for a long time. If you don't have a laminator, you can buy special paper that is clear and sticky and serves as a laminator without spending the money on a machine. It can be tricky to get this paper to stick with bubbles, but it looks great when it's done right.

If you don't have prints of dinosaurs, instruct your child or children to look at dinosaur books and draw their own dinosaur pictures. Some dinosaurs that are favorites of all kids are T-Rex, Brontosaurus, Plateosaurus, and Stegosaurus, just to name a few. Supply markers, crayons, paper, and scissors and let them do all the drawing. This makes the mobile much more personal.

While the children are drawing or you can do this before you introduce the project, construct the mobile frame with the hangers. Criss-cross the hangers, one inside the other and tape them together with masking tape at the neck of the hook. Tape them again at the bottom of the hangers where the two hangers meet. Twist the hooks around so they are both facing the same direction.

Some stores sell colored metal hangers. Purchase a set of these for a more colorful display. If you have a bunch of the copper metal hangers and would like them to be a different color, spray paint them. Use more than one color hanger for each mobile for a more colorful approach.

You will be able to hang four or five dinosaur pictures from the mobile. Once the drawings are complete and cut out, use an unfolded metal paper clip to attach the picture to the hanger. Unfold a paper clip by pulling the smaller end of the clip out and back, so that the clip is flat and long. It should look like a tall, slim letter "S." Pierce one end of the clip through the top of the picture and use the other end to dangle the picture from the hanger. Do this for all the pictures and you're finished!