30+ Best Dinosaur Activities for Kids

After several students in our class expressed interest in learning about dinosaurs, I quickly started searching for dinosaur centers that my students would love. As we started our unit, I quickly found out that many 3-6 year old know and can pronounce the names of many dinosaurs, better then I can. Below I’m sharing a collection of over 30 Best Dinosaur Activities for Kids.

Some of the activities can be done independently by kids, others work well as a center with a small group and an educator. They are all activities that my students, and my own kids at home, loved and were engaged in as they learned about dinosaurs.

As you scroll through for ideas, some activities allow you to click for more information, others are simply an image to show the activity. Let the image inspire you to create something in your own classroom.

dinosaur activities for kids shows a pinterest pin collage of activities.

Dinosaur Activities for Kids

A great way to kick off a Dinosaur unit with a group of dino loving kids is with a Dinosaur Scavenger hunt. This free printable hunt can be printed and set up in minutes around a school.

The riddles include dinosaur fun facts and then a clue to somewhere in a school. Kids explore, and learn!

Dinosaur Activities for Kids

Dinosaur Activities – Sensory Play

I bought a large plastic storage bin that I use everyday in kindergarten. At first I filled with with random objects, and didn’t intend for it to be so popular. Now I plan something special in the sensory bin each week for center time. It is always a favorite for all kids.

If you have a proper sensory bin, make sure to utilize it during play. It’s sure to be a hit!

The first sensory bin for our dinosaur activities for kids, included about an inch or two of dirt on the bottom. The add plastic dinosaur figures, wood slices, shovels, and any other dinosaur related objects that you have on hand, like eggs and leaves.

dinosaur activities for kids shows a bin full of dirt and dinosaurs.

The second dinosaur sensory bin uses sand on the bottom. After you’ve added the sand, I added a few bowls with blue jewels and water. (I added a few drops of food coloring to the water to make it blue.) I then added stones, dinosaurs, wooden trees, leaves and small strainers. The kids can move the dinosaurs around the small land, take a drink and interact with their peers and their dinosaurs.

sensory play for kids shows a bin filled with sand and dinosaur materials.

The third sensory bin, is my favorite! Use different colors of playdough and smooth it out along the bottom of the bin. Add dinosaurs and other small toys to the bin like gems. Children will love pressing their dinosaurs into the dough and creating foot prints!

sensory play for kids shows a bin with green and blue play dough and dinos, rocks and beads.

Paleontologist Dig

The next sensory bin, we used several small bins. Use hot glue to glue bones to the bottom of the bin. Next add sand on top of the bones. Give children paint brushes to brush off the sand and feel a little bit what it would be to be an paleontologist.

After we were finished with this center, I was able to snap the bones off of the bottom despite the hot glue.

dinosaur activities for kids shows a child using a paint brush to brush off bones in a bin with sand.

Learn about dinosaurs and eruptions with this Volcano sensory bin. It’s a fantastic way to teach your class about volcanoes. Use rice and chick peas for a unique sensory bin experience.

dinosaur activities for kids shows a DIY volcano in a sensory container.
Volcano Sensory Bin

This activity idea mixes a bit of art and sensory. Create your own fossils with the instructions and DIY recipe for beautiful fossils. Then use your fossils for little ones to undercover the fossils in the sand.

dinosaur activities for kids shows a child brushing sand off dino fossil prints.
Be a Paleontologist

Preschoolers and kindergarten kids love playdough. It’s a great sensory activity for them to create and play with. I was able to get some 3D cookie cutters that were shaped like dinosaurs, created from a 3D printer, from 3Dclassroom.ca

play dough activities shows dino cookie cutters and playdough for the cutters.

Just providing the cookie cutters and playdough would be enough for kids to happily play, but try adding googly eyes and other craft materials for kids to add extra details to their dinos!

dinosaur sensory play shows a ball of playdough and two dinosaur cookie cutters.
dinosaur created from playdough and a googly eye and buttons.

Dinosaur Activities for Kids – Fine Motor Play

Pretend to be a hungry dinosaur! Use colorful cereal for children to pick up and sort. However, they can’t use their hands. Small claw clips mimic dinosaur teeth and the cereal must be picked up using the ‘teeth’.

Once they pick up a piece of cereal, they have to set it on the tray with the other pieces of the same color. This is a great activity for fine motor skills as well as sorting.

dinosaur activities for kids shows bins of cereal and hair clips. A tray in the middle has one circle cereal in each section.

Dinosaur Centers – Math

Hands-on centers are a great way to teach children math skills. They learn as they play and tend to be very engaged in the activity.

Use several dinosaur figures, all of different sizes and heights. Provide small wooden blocks. Children then build a stack of blocks the same height as each dinosaur. Discuss which dinosaur was the tallest. How many blocks tall it was etc.

dinosaur activities for kids shows dinosaur figures and wooden blocks.

This center was one of the most popular from my classroom. I was very happy to see how many children gravitated to this center and were excited to practice their number skills.

This is the benefit from hands-on play. Children learn because they are engaged and excited to do the activity. I used plastic Easter eggs that snap together. The eggs I found were speckled so they resembled dinosaur eggs, which was perfect.

Place each number from 0-20 onto a piece of paper, or other manipulative that you can write on. Place the number into an egg and close the egg.

Children crack open an egg, get a number and match it to the volcano number on the table.

dinosaur activities for kids shows two rows of numbers printed with a volcano background and two bins of eggs.
Printable Number Cards Available through Play All Day

If you have magnetic tiles in your classroom, use them for this activity! We used this center as a math activity, but also a STEM challenge. Children create a stack of the tiles to measure the height of the dinosaur figure.

Children were then challenged to create a home for the dinosaur by building around it and creating an enclosure.

kindergarten centers shows a bin of  magna tiles and two dino figures.

Printable Ten Frame

Easy to use Dinosaur addition ten Frame cards. You have an addition equation and then a ten frame with part of the equation and then fill in the rest of the equation. A fun dinosaur math center for kids.

dinosaur activities for kids shows an addition card 1+6 and connecting blocks set on the ten frame.
Dinosaur Ten Frame Printables

This activity invites children to arrange numbers on the back of a muffin tin and have a dinosaur walk on them in number order.

dinosaur activities for kids shows a muffin tin upside down with numbers and a dino figure on one sige.
Dinosaur Activities for Kids

Print the shapes that feature different dinosaurs. If you have small dinosaur figures children can use them to place on the dinosaurs to create each shape.

kindergarten math shows a printed page that say triangle and dino figures on each.
Dinosaur Shape Mat

Try a math+puzzle activity. Print the pages and cut them into strips. Children can then put them together by putting the numbers in order to create a dinosaur picture.

dinosaur activities for kids shows a printable page with a dino clipart and divided into 10 sections.
Number Puzzle

Dinosaur Activities for Kids – Science

Beyond learning about dinosaurs and creatures that roamed the earth, hands-on science experiments are always fun for kids. Below are a few fizzing and frozen science experiments.

dinosaur activities for kids shows a pinterest pin.

These fizzy dinosaur eggs are so much fun! Kids will love learning about science and finding the dinosaurs inside these eggs.

dinosaur activities for kids shows a child putting liquid on a yellow pile and it fizzing.
Fizzy Dinosaur Eggs

Grab some playdough for children to quickly and easily create fossils. Try using dinosaur figures to create footprints and other dinosaur related materials to create a imprint.

dinosaur activities for kids shows a piece of purple play dough and a child pressing a rock/tooth into it to make a print.
Play Dough Fossils

I can’t wait to try this with my group! Freeze several small dinosaurs into ice. Provide water, or even salt water, for children to work to get the dinosaur freed.

dinosaur activities for kid shows a child holding a dinosaur figure and other dinos frozen in ice.
Dinosaur Ice Rescue

Hatch dinosaurs by watching them fizz! This is a classic experiment that is easy to set up and kids are sure to love. It also serves as a great introduction to a chemical reaction.

dinosaur play shows a child using an eye dropper onto a plastic dinosaur.
Hatching Fizzy Dinosaur Eggs

Dinosaur Centers – Language

We used the printable number cards for a similar activity, and it was such a popular center, that I used the same idea to create another activity, but this time, children matched letters.

dinosaur activities for kids shows two rows of alphabet card on dino foot prints and a bin of Easter eggs.
Printable Alphabet Cards Available through Play All Day

Print each letter (upper case or lower case) onto a piece of paper or small manipulative. Children open each egg and match the letter from the egg to the letter card taped to the table.

dinosaur activities for kids shows a child putting a letter E block onto a matching egg card.
Printable Cards Available through Play All Day

Using a pocket chart, print the upper case and lower case dinosaur themed letters. Children are challenged to match each letter.

dinosaur activities for kids shows a pocket chart with capital and lower case letter cards.
Printable Letter Cards Available through Play All Day

Make a Dinosaur Letter D Craft with this fun printable.

arts and crafts for kids shows the letter D and cut outs added to look like a dinosaur.

This editable dinosaur board game is a fun way to work on a variety of skills! Use it for reading practice, letter identification, letter sounds, math facts and more!

dinosaur activities for kids shows a dinosaur game board.
Editable Dinosaur Theme Board Game

While the dinosaur mat may seem like just play, it can also be used to label different dinosaurs to work in some science as well as language arts. Write the names of various species or even words like volcano, river, etc. on small pieces of paper and have your child place them next to their match.

small world play shows a felt play mat with dinosaur pieces and a book.
Journey Through Time Book Extension

This fun sensory activity is hands-on way for your kids to practice identifying and tracing letters.

alphabet games for kids shows a "I can make a dinosaur" activity card for the letter B with play dough creating different shapes.
Dinosaur Alphabet Play Dough Mat

Practice identifying capital and lowercase letters with this dinosaur-themed activity.

dinosaur learning activity shows a dinosaur clipart with its mouth open and a child putting a letter A clipart card into the mouth.
Dinosaur Letter Recognition

A dinosaur ABC learning center works on finding the letters and covering or tracing the letters with uppercase and lowercase letters.

alphabet printables shows a Dinosaur ABC find printable page with dino figures and letter cards.
ABC Tracing

Small World Play

If you don’t include small world play in your classroom, this DIY small world play mat is the perfect place to start. I created this mat using felt and hot glue. We have been able to transform the mat into countless themed centers over the years.

Include a few small sections, like a nest, cave and water to encourage imaginative play. Add dinosaur figures and toys to create a magical world.

dinosaur activities for kids shows a felt play mat with dinosaurs on it.
DIY Small World Play Mat

Arts and Crafts

Kids love to paint! How cute would a dinosaur footprint art piece be? Compare the different footprints as children create.

dinosaur activities for kids shows small dinosaur figures with pain footprints.
Dinosaur Footprint Art

This beautiful scratch art is a great art project and fun for children to scratch and create their own dinosaur in class.

dinosaur activities for kids shows three dinosaur scratch art.
DIY Scratch Art

Make 12 species of dinosaurs from paper plates with this set of printable glue on shapes. Super easy and lots of fun!

dinosaur arts and crafts shows two dinosaurs made with paper plates.
Paper Plate Dinosaurs

Have fun piecing together the Dinosaur puzzles.

printable puzzle shows a dinosaur puzzle.
Free Dinosaur Puzzles

Use the sun and dinosaur toys to make this dinosaur silhouette art. It’s a fun way to talk about shadows and angles with young kids. If you try this in the classroom, you can use a flashlight to mimic the sun’s shadow inside.

dinosaur activities for kids shows a dinosaur outside creating a shadow on a page of leaves.
Dinosaur Silhouette

Sock puppets are another great dinosaur themed activity for children to create. Use it as a final culminating activity in your dinosaur unit. This was children can create something that they can take home and use for years.

Have children start by creating their dinosaur on the “Design a Dinosaur” hand puppet. This is a free printable available below.

dinosaur activities for kids shows a "Design A dinosaur" hand pupper printable page.

Once designed, children can start creating. Cut pieces to create spikes on the dinosaurs back, sharp teeth and maybe even wings! You’ll be amazing at what they can come up with!

sock puppet shows a dinosaur sock puppet made by a child.
arts and crafts for kids shows a dinosaur sock puppet.
dinosaur craft for kids shows a dinosaur with spikes sock puppet.

Free Printable

Click to download the free printable planning template for the dinosaur sock puppet!

free printable page shows a dinosaur sock puppet page.
Dinosaur Puppet Template

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2 responses to “30+ Best Dinosaur Activities for Kids”

  1. […] doing a dinosaur unit with young children, make sure to check out my collection of over 30 Best Dinosaur Activities for kids in kindergarten and […]

  2. […] Dinosaur Activities for Kids […]

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