Dinosaur crafts and activities for kids

Dinosaurs are a favorite for so many children. They are big, fascinating and full of fun facts, which makes them perfect for crafts, games and learning. This guide has easy dinosaur crafts for kids, dinosaur activities, learning ideas, dinosaur worksheets and free printable dinosaur coloring pages, for toddlers to tweens.

Dinosaur crafts for kids

1. Paper plate stegosaurus. Fold a paper plate in half, paint it green and glue paper triangles along the top for plates. Add a head and legs.
2. Handprint dinosaurs. Paint a handprint and turn the fingers into legs and the thumb into a long neck.
3. Salt dough fossils. Make salt dough, press toy dinosaurs or shells into it, and bake on low. Paint them to look like real fossils.
4. Dinosaur puppets. Color the dinosaur coloring pages, cut them out and tape them to sticks for a puppet show.
5. Egg carton dinosaurs. Turn a row of egg cups upside down for a dinosaur's spiky back.
6. Toilet roll dinosaurs. Paint a roll and add a long neck, tail and legs from card.
7. Dinosaur eggs. Paint stones or plastic eggs with spots and stripes.
8. Dinosaur footprints. Cut out big footprints and stick them on the floor to follow.
9. Dinosaur masks. Make masks from paper plates with spikes and teeth.
10. Volcano. Build a paper or play dough volcano and erupt it with baking soda and vinegar.
11. Dinosaur hats. Add paper spikes to a strip of card for a dino crown.
12. Dinosaur egg nest. Color the dinosaur egg nest page and make a nest from shredded paper.

Dinosaur activities for kids

• Fossil dig. Bury toy dinosaurs or bones in a sandbox or tray of sand and dig them up with spoons and brushes like a paleontologist.
• Frozen dinosaur eggs. Put small toy dinosaurs inside balloons, fill with water and freeze. Children use warm water, salt and spoons to "hatch" them.
• Dino egg hunt. Hide painted stones or plastic eggs around the garden.
• Dinosaur stomp. Play music and stomp like a T-rex, then freeze when it stops.
• Dinosaur obstacle course. Crawl under "ferns", jump over "rivers" and stomp through "swamps".
• Dinosaur small world. Make a scene with sand, rocks, plants and toy dinosaurs.
• Measure a dinosaur. A T-rex was about 12 meters (40 feet) long. Measure it out with string in the garden or a hallway.
• Dinosaur memory game. Make pairs of dinosaur cards or try the memory game.

Dinosaur learning activities

Dinosaurs are a wonderful way into science, math and reading.

Science

• Plant eaters and meat eaters. Sort toy dinosaurs into herbivores and carnivores, and talk about how you can tell from their teeth.
• Fossils. Learn how fossils form and what they teach us.
• Extinction. Talk simply about how dinosaurs died out a very long time ago.
• Birds are dinosaurs. Children love learning that birds are related to dinosaurs.

Math

• Count dinosaurs. Count toy dinosaurs, sort them by size and make a graph. See graphing worksheets.
• Measure. Compare dinosaur sizes with things children know, like buses and houses.
• Dino math. Add and subtract with dinosaur toys or pictures.

Reading and writing

• Dinosaur names. Practise writing dinosaur names on handwriting lines.
• Dinosaur fact book. Draw a dinosaur on each page and write one fact.
• Dinosaur stories. Write a story about a dinosaur who visits your school.
• Letter D. Learn the letter D for dinosaur with our letter D worksheets.

Dinosaur worksheets

Dinosaur themes make practice exciting. Use dinosaur pictures for counting, addition and reading activities. Our counting worksheets, addition worksheets and reading worksheets work well alongside dinosaur coloring pages, and you can make fresh math sheets with the math worksheet maker.

Dinosaur crafts by age

Toddlers

Handprint dinosaurs, dinosaur eggs with stickers, stomping games, fossil digs in sand and coloring big dinosaurs.

Preschool

Paper plate stegosaurus, dinosaur puppets, egg carton spikes, frozen eggs and counting dinosaurs.

School age

Salt dough fossils, volcano experiments, dinosaur fact books, measuring dinosaurs and research projects.

A dinosaur party

Dinosaurs make a great party theme. Start with dinosaur masks, hold a fossil dig and an egg hunt, play dinosaur stomp, and end with dinosaur coloring. See birthday party activities for kids for more party planning tips.

Fun dinosaur facts for kids

• The word dinosaur means "terrible lizard".
• Some dinosaurs were as small as chickens.
• The longest dinosaurs were longer than three buses.
• Many dinosaurs had feathers.
• Dinosaurs laid eggs, just like birds.

A dinosaur week

Turn a dinosaur interest into a whole week of fun:

• Monday: read a dinosaur book and make a paper plate stegosaurus.
• Tuesday: fossil dig in the sandbox and salt dough fossils.
• Wednesday: count, sort and graph toy dinosaurs.
• Thursday: frozen dinosaur eggs and a dinosaur stomp dance party.
• Friday: visit a museum or watch a dinosaur documentary, then make a dinosaur fact book.

Dinosaur crafts for the classroom

For a class, choose quick crafts with simple steps, such as dinosaur puppets, handprint dinosaurs and paper plate masks. Set up a fossil dig station and a dinosaur small world corner, and display finished work on a "Dino Land" wall. Children can label each dinosaur with its name and one fact.

Visiting a dinosaur museum

If you can, visit a natural history museum with real fossils and skeletons. Before you go, choose three dinosaurs to find. Bring a notebook to draw them, and afterwards make a poster about the visit.

Most of all, follow your child's curiosity. Dinosaur fans often know more names than adults do, so let them be the expert and teach you a few facts.

Frequently asked questions

What are easy dinosaur crafts for preschoolers?

Paper plate stegosaurus, handprint dinosaurs, dinosaur puppets from coloring pages, egg carton spikes and painted dinosaur eggs.

How do you make a fossil dig for kids?

Bury toy dinosaurs or bones in a sandbox or tray of sand and give children spoons and paint brushes to dig them out carefully.

What can kids learn from dinosaurs?

Science (fossils, plant and meat eaters, extinction), math (counting, sorting, measuring) and reading and writing (dinosaur names, facts and stories).