Tech Savvy Mama

Parenting in the Digital Age

Dinosaur Train’s Dinosaur Big City Premieres Today on PBS

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If your kids can name all of the dinosaurs and the prehistoric time periods thanks to Dinosaur Train, then chances are they’re looking forward to Dinosaur Big City, the Dinosaur Train movie that will air on PBS Kids today. Check your local listings to determine what time you will be able to join Buddy and the Pternadon Family on their journey to the Dinosaur Big City!
 
If you’re new to Dinosaur Train, it’s one of our favorites. Each of the 30 minute shows features Buddy, a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and the Pteradon Family journeying through prehistoric time periods on the Dinosaur Train. I love that each episode encourages scientific thinking and other skills as they teach children about natural science, natural history, and paleontology.
 
This means that my kids know the difference between a therapod and quadraped and can pronounce words like palaeobatrachus and parasaurolophos and identify them when we visit the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C which is very cool but means I am constantly being corrected by them! If you need a little help with the pronunciation, check out the video below:

 
The one hour premiere of Dinosaur Big City kicks off the start of the second season of Dinosaur Train. Here’s some additional information about the movie from The Jim Henson Company and PBS:
 
Buddy and his Pteranodon family embark on a journey on the Dinosaur Train, gathering all their theropod friends together to travel to a really big Theropod Club Convention, which is being held in Laramidia, the “Dinosaur Big City.” Among the travelers is King Cryolophosaurus, a singing theropod who is more than a little nervous about giving a concert in front of his biggest audience ever in the Big City. 
 
King Cryolophosaurus= Elvis in dino form
Once the Dinosaur Train arrives in Laramidia, Buddy and the Pteranodon family explore the crowded “dinosaur metropolis.” At the Theropod Convention, the kids reunite with Annie Tyrannosaurus and her parents Delores and Boris, and they all meet the multi-horned mayor, Mayor Kosmoceratops. In the end, Buddy and Tiny help King Cryolophosaurus overcome his stage fright, and he wows a large dinosaur audience when he sings his new song, “Whole Lotta Theropods” at the Convention.
 
The Dinosaur Big City of Laramidia
Check your local listings to determine what time you will be able to join Buddy and the Pternadon Family on their latest journey! 
 
We love the Dinosaur Train site on PBSKids.org as much as the show itself. If you’re like us and have a soon-to-be kindergartener in your house, the Dinosaur Train site is full of fun learning activities. Here are some great things as you eagerly anticipate the start of the school year:
  • Practice reading and speaking. Help your child practice the letters of the alphabet while learning, speaking and singing about the diversity of dinosaurs that once lived on Earth with the “Dinosaurs A – Z song” and have fun learning about letters and dinosaurs. 
  • Learn about color. Help your child understand, investigate and make predictions about the science of color, using household basics including food coloring, clean food jars/containers, colored markers and a cookie sheet with this activity about colorful hypotheses. 
  • Develop fine motor skills such as coloring; cutting; drawing; buttoning; zippering; building. With Buddy’s help, you can practice some of these skills while making a Stegosaurus Puppet.
  • Practice gross motor skills such as running, jumping and throwing. Try “Playing Dino Ball Your Way” to improve these skills–and get some exercise too–by inventing the rules for an imaginary game and then playing it! 
  • Explore size and scale. Using illustrations and physical markers, kids can measure out size differences in large dinosaurs to understand their size and scale! Check out the activity “Even Bigger than T.Rex!” at the following link and have some fun while learning about size.
Just in time for back to school shopping, did you know that Dinosaur Train fans can also show their love with Dinosaur Train Apparel? 

We recently got a sample of the new Kids with Character set that contained a button down shirt, ringer T, and coordinating shorts and Captain Computer loved his new outfit! Super cute, affordable, and durable enough to withstand lots of pretend dinosaur play!

Dinosaur Train apparel is now available at Kohl’s and KMart. Check out this PJ set on sale for $13.50- marked down from $30!
 
I received a clothing set for review purposes and was invited to host a Dinosaur Big City viewing party. No additional compensation was received for this post and all opinions are my own and those of my two huge Dinosaur Train fans! Images courtesy of PBS.

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