Tape Resist Dinosaur Bone Art (And our favorite 10+ Dinosaur Books!)

I love it when an art and science combine to create a beautiful and easy kids STEM project. When I was growing up science, math, and art were always treated as fairly different topics.  And I get why they taught us that way... it's easier and we get to dig down deep into each one.  But I wish that my kid self also experienced how all three things topics were linked.  Don't artist use math and science when making art?  Isn't there beauty in math and science? Certainly!  And so my inner nerd and artist gets very excited when my son and I do a project that touches on what seem to be different areas.

Ok... but I digress.  Recently my son and I visited our local natural history museum's dinosaur exhibit and marveled at the size and design of t-rex bones.  (Gosh.  Those are some ferocious creatures!  So glad they don't live today.  Eeek.)  So, inspired by that visit and this awesome human skeleton tape resist painting idea, we made our own very beautiful and scientific tape resist dinosaur bone skeleton paintings! 

Tape Resist Dinosaur Bone Paintings 

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Our Favorite 10+ Dinosaur Books

Doing a whole dinosaur theme with the kiddos?  Or just want a good prehistoric kid book to read? Here are our fave dinosaur story books!

• Mamasaurus
• Danny and the Dinosaur
• Any of the books in the How do Dinosaur... series
• Any of the books in the Dinosaur vs... series
• Edwina, the dinosaur who didn't know she was extinct
• Tea Rex
• Digger Dog
• Magic Tree House Dinosaurs Before Dark
• Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs
• Brontorina
• Oh my oh my oh dinosaurs!
• Tyrannosaurus Dad

How to do Masking Tape Resist Dinosaur Skeleton Art

To do this activity, we studied some dinosaur fossil bones that we previously excavated from dinosaur excavation kits.  (We used e6000 to glue the bones together.  I also used the same glue to adhere bones to a painted ornament for some cute prehistoric wall art.)

I drew models of both of the dinosaurs using permanent markers onto some drawing paper. (This paper is thicker than normal computer paper.)

We worked side-by-side, looking at the dinosaur bones.  Then, we ripped up pieces of masking tape to mimic where the bones would be on our dinosaurs.  

I loved that while we taped we talked about the different bones in a very real and relevant way.

(My preschooler had a tough time ripping the tape, so I helped him out.)

After that, we pulled our our liquid watercolors and began mixing colors and painting our dinosaurs.

(Rainbow dinosaurs-- really?  Well... funny you should mention that.  Did you know that scientists aren't sure what color t-rexes' skin actually were? Yup. One of the facts that I learned from the natural history museum!)

Then, we let our dinosaurs dry.

Next came the fun part!  Rip off the masking tape like you're tearing off a bandage.  This was my son's favorite part.

(By the way, if you find that your masking tape is TOO strong and ripping up your paper, you can always stick it to your shirt a couple of times before sticking it to the page.  This way the tape isn't as sticky.)

Then, we cut out the dinosaurs.  (My son later glued his onto another sheet of paper and doodled a volcano, lava, river, and palm tree.)

Rawr!

I really hope you and the kids enjoy trying this masking tape resist art project too.  Oh! And if you want to see another neat science tape resist project, check out my tape resist ant tunnel art.   Or, make yourself some very yummy and colorful cracked rainbow dinosaur eggs!

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Happy making, friends!