DIY Paper Dinosaur Hat

My girls love to dress up and play pretend. I've found that the tiniest bit of prop, costume or accessory really encourages them, and allows them to extend their pretend play even further. Since we love completing Weekly Preschool Themes, and we love dinosaurs, it was only natural that we had Dinosaur Theme Week! I wanted to make my daughters simple dinosaur hats, with spikes trailing down their backs so that they could stomp around to their hearts' content. And since we love paper crafts so much, we made them out of nothing but construction paper!

These were easy to make, and you already have everything you need. My 4-year-old made hers on her own, with just a little bit of help and guidance from me. It provided lots of cutting, gluing, and spatial reasoning practice (and it was fun).

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You'll need 3 sheets of green construction paper, a glue stick, scissors, and tape.

First, cut 4 strips about 1" wide along the long side of a sheet of paper. Two of these stirps will be the headband, and the other 2 will be cross pieces that you will attach your spikes to.

Next, take your two other sheets of paper and cut them into strips about 2" wide along the short side of the paper. Basically, divide these sheets into 5 strips each. Eyeball it. These will become your spikes.

Fold each of your spikes pieces in half. You'll want to cut these to be like a diamond, but with a 'flat' area in the middle. So, the point of your spike is on the 'open' edge of your folded piece of paper, and you'll cut diagonally down to about 1/2" above the folded edge. Cut out all your spikes.

Glue the spikes, in a row, down the 2 longer narrow strips that are your cross pieces.

While the glue dries, take your two headband pieces and measure it to fit around your child's head. We used tape to secure it in a circle. It doesn't have to be tight, because a cross piece will go over the top of the head and help keep it on.

Now back to your spikes. Flip the cross piece over, so that the spikes are underneath. Fold each of the spikes up and around along the cross piece to get a good crease. Then add glue to one side and bring the two sides together to meet in the middle. Use paper clips to hold the two sides together while they dry (this was great practice for Lena-- she loves paperclips, but doesn't have much occasion to use them).

After the glue has dried, simply tape the cross pieces to the headband. One should fit nicely from the front to the back, and one should trail down below.