All about dinosaurs, fossils and prehistoric animals by Everything Dinosaur team members.
14 04, 2014

Make Dinosaur Chocolate Nests

By | April 14th, 2014|Key Stage 1/2|Comments Off on Make Dinosaur Chocolate Nests

Easy and Fun Dinosaur Chocolate Nests Recipe

Here is an easy and fun dinosaur chocolate nests recipe to help teaching professionals widen the range of activities undertaken in a dinosaur themed teaching topic.  These little treats are very tasty but we are careful to point out the benefits of fruit and vegetables when we are working with children and explaining the diets of some prehistoric animals.

Dinosaur Chocolate Nests

This is a simple and fun recipe aimed at young dinosaur fans, a recipe to make dinosaur chocolate nests.  This is a great activity for the Easter holidays or as the Easter holiday approaches.

Dinosaur Chocolate Nests – What you Need

Ingredients – (makes a batch of about 8 to 10 dinosaur  nests)

  • Plain or Milk cooking Chocolate 225 grammes (8oz)
  • Packet of Breakfast Cereal Cornflakes or Shredded Wheat variety
  • Packet of Sugar Coated Mini-chocolate Eggs
  • Pack of Small Cake Cases

There is measuring involved so this is a useful exercise in itself, along with a little bit of mixing.  Please take care when supervising the children when it comes to melting the chocolate.

Here’s Some we Made Earlier – Dinosaur Chocolate Nests

Dinosaur chocolate nests.

Super dinosaur chocolate nests which are fun and easy to make.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

For instructions on how to make these tasty, dinosaur chocolate nests: Tasty Dinosaur Chocolate Nests.

These chocolate nests also make super cakes for a dinosaur themed party.  Don’t forget to include plenty of salad such as our “sauropod salad” with plenty of crunchy lettuce leaves and “Cretaceous cress”.

To view the large range of educational toys and games available from Everything Dinosaur: Dinosaur Toys, Games and Models.

14 04, 2014

Make Your Own Dinosaur Chocolate Nests

By | April 14th, 2014|Dinosaur Fans, Educational Activities, Main Page, Press Releases|0 Comments

A Spring Holiday Activity Idea – Making Dinosaur Chocolate Nests

Here’s a simple and fun recipe aimed at young dinosaur fans, a recipe to make dinosaur chocolate nests.  This is a great activity for the Easter or spring holidays.

Dinosaur Chocolate Nests

Dinosaur Chocolate Nests – What you Need

Ingredients – (makes a batch of about 8 to 10 dinosaur  nests)

  • Plain or Milk cooking Chocolate 225 grammes (8oz)
  • Packet of Breakfast Cereal Cornflakes or Shredded Wheat variety
  • Packet of Sugar Coated Mini-chocolate Eggs
  • Pack of Small Cake Cases
A recipe to make dinosaur chocolate nests.

Make your own dinosaur chocolate nests.

How to Make the Dinosaur Chocolate Nests

1.  Take the cooking chocolate out of its wrapper and snap it into small pieces into a heat-proof bowl.  Then melt the chocolate over a pan of hot water (simmering).  Putting the bowl in a microwave for 30 seconds (full power), will help to melt the chocolate if you are in a hurry and need to get the chocolate to melt more quickly.

2.  Once melted remove from the heat (turn off the heat source) and give the chocolate a quick stir to ensure all the chocolate pieces have melted.

3.  Put in the chosen breakfast cereal, a little at first then gradually add more until the chocolate/cereal mix takes on the appearance of twigs or wood in a nest.

4.  Spoon enough of the chocolate/cereal mix into each of the cake cases, a table spoon is usually sufficient.  Make a little indentation in the centre of each chocolate dinosaur next, this hollow is where the eggs will be placed.

5.  Put two mini-chocolate eggs into the hollow formed at the centre of each nest.  The chocolate being sticky, will ensure that the eggs stay in place.  A pair of eggs per nest is all that is needed.  Palaeontologists know that dinosaurs laid their eggs in twos (dinosaurs unlike birds had two ovipositors) – the egg laying apparatus of a dinosaur has been described as being like a “double barrelled shot-gun”.

6.  Then leave the nests to harden and set, they should be ready to eat in under 2 hours.

Great for a Dinosaur Party – Dinosaur Chocolate Nests

Super dinosaur chocolate nests which are fun and easy to make.

Super dinosaur chocolate nests which are fun and easy to make.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view Everything Dinosaur’s huge range of products: Visit Everything Dinosaur.

Some Facts about dinosaur eggs (for all young, budding palaeontologists)

A).  Dinosaur eggs were not as large as many people think, the largest dinosaur eggs known to science are about the size of a soccer ball.  Some of the biggest dinosaur eggs have been ascribed to a genus of huge, long-necked dinosaur (titanosaur), whose fossils have been found in France.  This dinosaur is called Hypselosaurus (the name means “high ridged lizard”.  Hypselosaurus was named and described back in 1869, from fossils found in Provence, however, scientists are unsure as to whether the genus name can be established based on such fragmentary fossil evidence.  The genus is now termed a nomen dubium, palaeontologists have doubts about its validity.

B).  Dinosaur eggs were lots of different shapes, some were very round, some oval shaped, some even quite pointy at one end.  The shape of the egg tells scientists a little about the dinosaur that laid them.  Something like forty different types of dinosaur egg have now been identified by scientists.

C).  The classification of fossil eggs is referred to as ootaxa, dinosaur eggs are classified in virtually the same way as other organisms are classified using the classical Linnaean method (after the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus 1707-1778), there are oofamilies, oogenera and oospecies.

D).  Some dinosaurs were very attentive parents, incubating the eggs and protecting the nest.  When the eggs hatched the parents brought food to the nest for the baby dinosaurs.

E).  The oldest dinosaur eggs that contain the fossils of baby dinosaurs inside them were found in China and a report published on them in 2013.  These eggs are around 190 million years old.

Dinosaur Fossilised Eggs (Hypselosaurus)

Fossilised Dinosaur Eggs but who laid them?

Fossilised Dinosaur Eggs but who laid them?

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Articles on dinosaur egg discoveries published by Everything Dinosaur:

X).  Not the World’s Biggest Dinosaur Eggs!

Y).  Treasure Trove of Dinosaur Eggs Discovered in India.

Z).  School Children Make Dinosaur Egg Discovery.

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