If you’re looking for dinosaur activities for preschool, kindergarten & elementary school students, we’ve got you covered. Below you’ll find a free sampling of educational dinosaur activities for kids that are perfect for parents and teachers alike. We hope you enjoy them!
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Free Dinosaur Activities
Drinking Dinosaur Pee–A Group Time/Class Discussion Activity
(All Ages)
You may not realize it, but when you drink a glass of water, you’re drinking liquid that at one point or another came out of a dinosaur. This is because the H2O on this planet is constantly being recycled, and over eons and eons, the molecules in that water you’re drinking were probably in and out of numerous dinosaurs.
Turn this fact into a fun group-time demonstration. Gather the kids in group, and once they are settled, pullout a clear glass and a bottle of water. Without telling them what you’re doing (it’s the suspense that makes this memorable), pour some of the water into the glass in a fanciful, exaggerated fashion. Then take a big, animated drink, topping it off with an “Ahhhh . . . how refreshing” afterwards.
Now that you’ve peaked their interest, explain that you just took a big drink of dinosaur pee. Ask if they’d like some too. Then explain the science behind that claim. It’s a demonstration they’re sure to remember, and later on, you can serve them “dinosaur pee” for lunch and speculate on which types of dinosaurs contributed to your beverage. Just be sure to emphasize that water is naturally cleaned when its recycled; you don’t want to give them a phobia about water.
Dinosaur Modeling (All Ages) An Art Activity for Kids
Get some toy dinosaurs of all kinds and set them in the middle of your art table. Give the kids paper, colored pencils and markers, and have them draw their own dinosaur scenes using the toys as models.
Name That Dinosaur–A Group Time/Class Discussion Activity
(All Ages)
Scientists often come up with highly technical names for dinosaurs. Where’s the fun in that? I bet your kids could do a better job in the dino naming game. Get online and do a search for “dinosaur pictures,” then print out a dozen or so pictures in as much of a variety as you can. (Or simply check out a dinosaur encyclopedia from your local library and show kids different pictures from it.) During group time, show each picture to your kids and have them give you their ideas about what they would name it if they were in charge of naming dinosaurs. Then vote on the best one for each dinosaur.
Dinosaur Egg Excavation–A Fine Motor/Science Activity
(Preschool toGrade One)
Hard boil some eggs, (amount depends on number of children) and get dirt from outside. Add a layer of dirt 2 to 3 inches thick to your sensory table or another large tub or baking tray. Add water, mix it to mud, and add the eggs. Push some of the eggs down so that they are completely under the mud, and leave others so that the tops are showing. Allow the mud to dry. (Set it in the sun to speed up the process, or add a heat lamp, or bake the mud in the oven at 150 degrees until dry if you used baking trays as a container.) When it is set, you’ll have what looks like a nest of fossilized dinosaur eggs. Provide the kids with dry paint brushes, old tooth brushes, as well as butter knives or other kid safe tools to scrape away mud, in order to extract the eggs from the dried mud. Use this time to talk about the work a paleontologist does.
Dinosaur Writing Activities for Kids
Small Dino, Big World (All Ages)
Tell kids to imagine they were a small dinosaur in a world filled with giants–either a dinosaur that’s small in stature (such as compsognathus), or a baby dinosaur that just hatched from its shell. What would life be like? What types of things would you have to watch out for? How would you survive? Now write/dictate a story about life as a small dinosaur living in a world of giants.
Dinosaur Reports (Grades 3-6)
Have kids research and write an essay on a particular type of dinosaur.
Alternate Extinction Theories (All Ages)
It’s the scientific consensus that a giant meteor strike wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. But what if a different culprit were to blame? Have kids get creative coming up with their own extinction theories, whether serious (a super virus; a global climate catastrophe) or silly (war with aliens from another planet; a candy-loving wizard turned them all into gummy drops and ate them; etc.).
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