news

10 Fun Ways to Play with Dinosaurs!

May 27, 2020 Artsy Dinos

Our Ultimate Guide to Dinosaur Crafting and Learning Activities!

Have dinosaur fans in your house? We’ll help you learn to play alongside your dino loving littles! Here are 10 ways dinosaur games inspire our play and learning!

dinosaur toys in a box, dinosaur crafts for toddlers

Check out our dinosaur painting kits to add to your preschooler’s dinosaur toy collection!

1) Dinosaur Diorama

Bubba and I had a blast creating this dinosaur diorama! Here are some of the materials we used, but use what works for you!

dinosaur toys educational, dinosaur diorama

An open top box - diorama frame
Paint your own dinosaurs! - dinosaur toys for diorama
Crayola air dry clay and washable paint – the cave, rocks and volcano
Construction paper – sky, mountains, grass, clouds
Cotton balls – clouds
Shrinky Dinks – Flying pterodactyls
Tissue paper – lava and trees

2) Pretend play

dinosaur toys for girls, dinosaur toys for boys

Dinosaurs can play with anything! Whether teatime, dollhouse or in Jurassic Park!

With your little ones, remember to take the time to listen to them. Kids have the most unique and precious way of looking at things! Ask them open ended questions and when playing, try not to overly curate the play your way.

What are some open-ended questions for pretend play?

Open-ended questions for pretend play

3) Dinosaur Fight!

dinosaur fight, dinosaur toys cheap

Carnivores vs. Herbivores! Our dinosaurs are constantly fighting – bad guys vs. good guys, dinosaur families protecting each other, re-enacting tv shows or movies – all kinds of things happening!

4) Build a Dinosaur Toy Village!

Bubba loves building elaborate dinosaur villages with his Magnatiles! He creates different homes, scenarios, etc. for his elaborate dino stories! These would be great to build with Legos as well.

5) Hide the Dinosaur

dinosaur games, dinosaur learning toys

We play this one all the time! Whether at home or at a park with friends (because our dinos travel everywhere with us!), hide the dinosaur is a simple game of hide and seek! You can either hide them and let your littles figure out where they are or give them “Hot or Cold” clues to let them know if they are getting closer or further away!

This is one we also play on virtual playdates – see more info on virtual play dates here!

6) I’m thinking about a Dinosaur

As your kiddos learn more about dinosaurs, this is a fun guessing game to play (works with any type of category – not just dinos!). Start naming features of the dinosaurs until your little guesses it! For example, “I’m thinking of a dinosaur that is an herbivore, has spikes all over and a club tail!” (Ankylosaurus)

Here are a few more to help you get started!

Stegosaurus – herbivore, plates for protection, walks on four legs, spiky tail
Diplodocus – herbivore, long neck, starts with a D
Pachycephalasaurus – walks on two legs, bony skull for protection, herbivore
Spinosaurus – carnivore, sail on its back, larger than a T Rex! May swim! Snout like an alligator
Styracasaurus – herbivore with a bony frill and a single long horn from its nose

7) Dinosaur eggs

hatch a dinosaur egg

We love playing Dinosaur Dig with these dinosaur egg sets! While Bubba needs help digging through the eggs, he loves the surprise of finding the baby dino!

The little dinosaurs are great for playing, hiding as well as doing a fan favorite activity – ice and jello blocks!

DIY hatching dinosaur eggs