Use these 5 awesome dinosaur activities to host an amazing dinosaur party for your little paleontologist or as a part of a dinosaur lesson plan. Kids love the variety of activities, which include Melting Ice-Age Dinosaurs, a Dinosaur Dig, Cracking Dinosaur Eggs Open, Erupting a Volcano, and Painting a Dinosaur. All of these are inexpensive and DIY, but will impress and engage children. These activities are great fro preschool through early elementary school.
Ice Age Dinosaur Activity
- Freeze small dinosaur toys in muffin tins. They should come out of the pan effortlessly. If yours stick, just wait a few minutes and they will melt free.
- Explain to the children that many people believe that the dinosaurs became extinct in the Ice Age, and you found some dinosaurs frozen in blocks of ice.
- Give children a big bowl of (not too) hot water and a baster to unfreeze them. You can also give them dull butter knives to chip away at the ice. Obviously very young children need close supervision for this, but they find this activity thrilling.
The kids have a blast unfreezing the dinosaurs, which of course, are theirs to keep.
Dinosaur Dig Activity
- Bury some really cool dinosaur fossils in a sandbox.
- Give children sweeper brushes (paintbrushes from the dollar store) to carefully uncover them just like real paleontologists.
- Set out magnifying glasses and a dinosaur book so they can examine and identify the fossils.
- Ask children to rebury the fossils when they are done, so that their friends can uncover them.
- At the end of the party, allow guests to take a fossil home.
Max and Jack still ask me to hide fossils in our sandbox, so they can play paleontologist.
Cracking Dinosaur Eggs Activity
I made dinosaur eggs for the kids to crack open. I tried two different ways, with a salt dough recipe and with a sand recipe. The sand worked best, so here’s the recipe.
How to Make Sand Dinosaur Eggs
- 2 parts playground sand
- 1 part cornstarch
- enough water to moisten
- Mix the sand and cornstarch together. Add water a little at a time until it just comes together when you form a ball.
- Take a handful of wet sand. Press a small dinosaur toy inside and form an egg shape. (Don’t fret; it won’t be perfect, but it’ll be great!)
- Allow egg to dry outside for 1-3 days, depending on heat and humidity levels. Once one side is dry, turn it over to dry the other.
At the party supervise kids with child-sized hammers, or let them throw the eggs on the ground to smash them open. Kids love the chance to destroy something. The dinos were theirs to keep.
Erupting a Volcano Science Project
My husband and I relived our childhood science fair days and created the classic volcano project. It turned out great, but I was too chintzy with the red food coloring so our lava turned out pale pink. I suggest you devote a half of a bottle of food coloring for the best effect.
How to Make a Volcano
a tall plastic bottle
cardboard
masking tape
newspaper strips
flour
water
craft paint
1. Secure the bottle on a large piece of cardboard (like a pizza box).
2. Use your tape and scraps of cardboard to freehand a loose volcano frame.
3. Mix together 1 part flour to 1 1/2 parts water. Dip strips of newspaper into this gluey mixture. Drape wet paper over the masking tape frame. Bumps and imperfections make it look more realistic.
4. Allow volcano to dry. Paint with brown and green craft paint.
At the Party
1. Place a little foliage around volcano to make it blend in.
2. Fill bottle 3/4 full of water mixed with 3 T baking soda, 1 drop of dish washing soap and A LOT of red food coloring.
3. Explain to the kids that the dinosaurs lived at the time the earth was still forming and there were lots of volcanoes.
4. When you are ready to erupt the volcano, pour vinegar into the hole. If you want it really explosive, add chips of dry ice. The volcano will steam! The dry ice turned ours form ho-hum to spectacular!
Dinosaur Craft
I always include an arts and crafts activity at my kid parties. It’s great for the first few arrivals to have something to do before the main event. It’s also fun for quieter kids who might want to bow out of the wilder games.
I found wooden dinosaurs in a package of 10 at the dollar store, and glued them to Popsicle sticks with wood glue. They were displayed with paint, glitter glue, markers and googly eyes. A pan of rocks made them decorative and provided a place for them to dry. They were a hit!
For 4 more dinosaur activities and to see how the party came together, check out The COOLEST Dinosaur Party Ever!
I love these party ideas! The dinosaur dig sounds like so much fun!
My pleasure! You can even do some with her for fun. Take care!
Thanks, Suzy! Every little boy i know had a lot of fun with these. The girls did too!
Thank you, Justine! I hope your little one has lots of fun!
Litter kids are so cute with dinosaurs. You can even do these activities without a party.
Have fun!
Oh my goodness! I am going to save this for my daughters birthday next year! She is in love with dinosaurs! What great activities…. I can’t believe I never thought to do some of this for a party! Thanks, Rebecca!!
These are such fantastic ideas! What a fabulous party! I can just imagine my son and all his friends being thoroughly involved in all these activities! Great to get the boys involved like this. 🙂
Oh my gosh, so fun! what great ideas! my son has been getting more and more into dinosaurs so I’ll have to keep these ideas in ind. In fact, I’ve pinned. 🙂 Thanks so much! Love the frozen dinos and the dig site!!
Awesome ideas! our two year old carries a dinosaur everywhere. Might have to keep this in mind for future parties. Thanks 🙂
These are all such creative ideas!! I can’t wait to try with my kids!
You’re welcome, Lauren! Dinosaurs and little boys really connect at age 4. My kids ask to do these activities regularly. they are fun, educational and pretty darn cheap.
Okay, I totally love these ideas! My son just turned three this weekend, but I’m already planning for next year’s party. Definitely pinning some of these. And we could totally do these just for fun, too! Thanks for sharing!
Super fun ideas! My 3.5 year old would LOVE these!!
Wonderful! Kids have a lot of fun with these activities.
Aww, that’s great Brittany! Happy birthday to your cutie! Dinosaur parties are a blast!
Thanks, Erica!
OMG I LOVE THIS!!
Thanks for sharing! We are getting ready to have a Dino birthday party this weekend for my now 2 year old! I think I will use the dino in ice one! And we are having a volcano cake my friend is making for my son! I am so excited! I can’t wait!
So cute! Love these ideas for my son!
We used playground sand. Each egg uses about 1 cup.
Wonderful!
Holy dooly! They are the best ideas and I can sleep soundly now knowing my 2 and 4 year olds are going to enjoy themselves!!
Fantastic site, such useful tips and ideas, many thanks!! xx
Hi! To make the sand eggs – is play sand , sand pit sand? Also approx how much for 15 eggs? Thanks!
Awesome ideas, my joint 2 and 4 years olds birthday party will sure include some of your ideas. thanks for the inspiration .
Great ideas thank you so much for sharing 😉
My pleasure! What I love about these activities is that we continue to do them just for fun now that we have the supplies at hand. Have a great party!
thanks so much, mamaguru!!!
these ideas of yours have inspired me to throw a dino party for my lo s 3rd bday 😉 … she absolutely loves DINOSAURS.
So glad to hear that! I have a new party in a week. Can you guess the theme? It’ll be on mamaguru soon.
We just had our little one’s 3rd birthday. We tried the fossils dig, sand eggs and the deviled eggs. They were all a great hit! Thank you so much for sharing these activities and tips. U r the best!!