Dinosaur story time is one of my favorites! I do it 1-2 times a year and it is always a hit! While I did it in December of 2025, the cold weather has encouraged me to get up and moving. And that is what dinosaur story time lends itself best to: moving!
Story Time Game Plan
I have pulled a variety of resources for this upcoming story time. I will follow my tried and true template but might make adjustments depending on my crowd. So far my plan is as follows:
- Warm Welcome: I will play background music while I greet and write name tags for participants.
- Welcome Song: I always sing “Hello Everybody” to get everyone’s attention.
- Library Announcements
- Book: We Love Dinosaurs by Lucy Volpin
- Song: Dinosaurs in the Swamp
- Flannel: Velociraptors Teasing Tyrannosaurus
- Instruments: Move Like the Dinosaurs by Pinkfong
- Song: This is Big Big Big
- Early Literacy Tip
- Book: Dinos Don’t Do Yoga by Catherine Bailey and Alex Willmore
- Movement: Dinosaur Pretend + Show Dinosaur Yoga Moves
- Goodbye Song: “If You’re Happy and You Know It”
- Stay and Play: Coloring Sheets and Dinosaur Yoga
Music Selection
I always play music as participants are entering the space and after the goodbye song. For this story time, I plan to give each participant an instrument and play Move Like the Dinosaurs by Pinkfong. The song is short so we might do it more than once. I will have participants use their instruments to keep a steady beat and do the actions in the song: Shake, Stomp, Swing, Crunch, Munch, and Roar. For crunch, participants will clap their hands together with their instruments. For munch, participants will pat their bellies with their instruments.
Flannel
Recently, I started a project to go through all the flannels found in the depths of file cabinets. My coworkers and I cataloged all the flannel stories, alphabetized them, and put them in plastic folders in an accessible place. One that I found was “Velociraptors Teasing Tyrannosaurus” which lends itself to interactive movement and chanting. The previous librarian printed pictures of dinosaurs, laminated them, and put Velcro on the back.
VELOCIRAPTORS TEASING TYRANNOSAURUS
Five velociraptors running across the swamp.
Teasing Tyrannosaurus
"You can’t catch me, you can’t catch me"
Along came tyrannosaurus and... CHOMP
(Continue until only have tyrannosaurus)
Now Tyrannosaurus stomps across the swamp,
No more raptors, no more taunts.
He looks all around, lets out a roar,
“I caught them all. there’s no more!”
Early Literacy Tip Suggestion
Early literacy tips are a way to help caregivers understand how what they are doing helps their children develop into strong readers and writers. My library system has written tips for a variety of skills and activities. I will discuss movement for this story time as it connects well to the dinosaur yoga book and stay and play activity.
Moving their whole bodies not only helps children internalize and understand what is happening in the story, but also helps them gain a sense of themselves in space. This is called “proprioception.”
This helps children later as they are learning to write.
– Pioneer Library System
Fingerplays/Rhymes Selection
Potential Book Selection
Dinosaurs books galore! I find when I am browsing my picture books, I always stumble on a dinosaur book in the stacks. While not all are suited for story time on the shelves, I have pulled a few that I might read for story time:
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