The Greedysaurus is a fun game and song that teaches children about Music Note Values and note recognition through the action of feeding a hungry dinosaur puppet!
Greedysaurus Dinosaur Song
I am a dinosaur, I have sharp teeth!
I leave big footprints underneath,
I’m always hungry, I need to eat,
So give me some notes, ‘cos they taste sweet!
*
Munch, munch, greedy, greedy, greedy, greedy!
Crunch, crunch, greedy, greedy, greedy, greedy!
Munch those notes ‘cos they taste sweet,
Can you guess how many they beat?
(sung to the same tune as Down In The Jungle or see below for clip)
Children are always ready to engage with a puppet, so they are an extremely useful tool for learning. In this song the music note eating Greedysaurus asks the children to feed him little card notes and he munches for the number of counts that the note is worth.
How to Play The Greedysaurus – To Teach Kids Music Note Values
1. First sing the Greedysaurus song to the children, it’s so catchy they’ll soon join in!
2. The Greedysaurus asks each child to feed him a specific note – “Please can I have a crotchet (1/4 note)?” or “I fancy a minim (1/2 note) please!” The child has to identify the music note.
3. He then asks how he should to crunch in order to match the music note value. This can be done by counting the beats or making a crunching sound in time to the beats. This is great practise for music note value recognition and naming as well as counting the beats.
4. Once the children have grasped the game they can have a go with the puppet making him do the correct number of crunches to match each note. So much educational content in the guise of a greedy dinosaur!
How To Make a Dinosaur Puppet
We wanted to make a puppet that would actually have a working jaw so he could munch the notes. We really loved the brilliant talking puppets from MollyMoo But we didn’t have exactly the same materials to hand, so in the true spirit of upcycled crafting – we made do with what was available!
Materials:
3 cheap car wash sponges from the £1 Shop
1 large egg box
The hard cardboard inner tube from a roll of foil (approx 3cm diameter & 30 cm long )
Hard card tube for sending photos or documents (5 cm diameter & 20 cm long approx)
2 x white plastic ends of the card document tube for eyes (bottle caps would also do)
White felt for teeth and green felt for joining the back of the neck.
Paint & Glue
How to:
For the original tutorial on this talking puppet mechanism, go to MollyMoo’s talking puppets here.
1. Attach the thinner tube to one of the sponges by first marking its position approximately 5 cms from one end. Using a craft knife, cut a circular groove where you you want to attach it and apply glue into the groove, then slot in the tube. Allow to dry.
2. Attach the second fatter, shorter tube to the second sponge by first marking the position in order to match the first one. Instead of a groove, this time use the craft knife to cut out a cylindrical hole right through the sponge, removing the excess sponge so that you can see right through it. Insert the tube into the hole, applying glue so that it sticks in place. Allow to dry.
3. You can now insert the thinner tube into the fatter tube by placing one sponge on top of the other. This will form the top and bottom jaw.
4. Cut both rounded ends off the third sponge and glue them together. Then glue them both to the top jaw, on the same end as the tubes. This is the top of the head. You can now see the head shape forming.
5. Take a large egg box and cut out the central strip of pointy bits that separate the eggs. This is the dinosaur’s spiky spine. Attach it to the back of the head with glue, it helps if you pin it first to help it stay in place until the glue is dry.
6. Use plastic caps or bottle tops for eyes. Draw pupils into the centre of the plastic cap with a permanent marker and glue one to each side of the head.
7. Using white felt, cut a strip of zig-zag teeth approx 30cm long that will give him a toothy grin. Attach the strip to the front edge of the top jaw.
8. Using green felt, cut a rectangle approx 30 x 12 cm and attach it lengthways, the top edge to the top jaw and the bottom edge to the bottom jaw. This holds the two jaws together, but allows him to munch convincingly!
9. Paint your dinosaur however you like!
10. Make some little cards perhaps from the rest of the egg box and mark each one with a different music note. These will be the dinosaur’s food!
We really enjoyed making our Greedysauras and if you’re looking for other activities for budding palaeontologists this dinosaur music note values game goes perfectly with The Dinosaur Stomp action Song. If you want to make some more puppets, I really recommend popping over to MollyMoo – Michelle has some amazing other characters you can make as well as thousands of other amazing craft ideas for kids!
Have you seen our new How To Read Music Theory Bundle? It’s the fun & child friendly way to learn to read music!
This is a great idea! How does the dinosaur munch eighth notes, or do you even introduce eighth notes with this lesson?
Thanks Mary, You can play the greedysaurus game in two ways depending on the age of the child, either by munching the number of beats in which case it is easier not to include 1/8 notes or you can just make the munches the same as the sound the notes make, mu-u-u-unch for a whole note mu-unch for a half note, munch for a 1/4 note and little crunch-crunch crunch-crunch sounds for pairs of 1/8 notes.
I love the idea of using this to teach music notes, but I must admit that the puppet on it’s own is pretty adorable too!
Thanks Emma! He is rather cute isn’t he? 🙂
Thanks Emma! He is a lot of fun to make and the kids love him!!
This sounds like it would be a ton of fun!
Thank you for stopping by the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop this week. We hope to see you drop by our neck of the woods next week!
What a complete, comprehensive, and cute activity! Thanks for sharing!
xoxo
Thanks Jennifer!