Here’s an awesome collection of Dinosaur games, perfect for throwing the coolest ever Dinosaur birthday party.
Erupting Volcano
First you need to make a volcano made of sand or dirt inside some kind of large container (like a baby bathtub) or a sandbox. You should wet the sand or dirt so that the volcano will be really big and dig a deep hole inside. Beforehand, prepare a bottle of vinegar and dye it with red food coloring.
Give each kid a plastic cup filled with baking soda. Let one of the kids pour the baking soda into the volcano and then add the red vinegar over the baking soda. This creates an awesome eruption with lava spewing all over the place! (Tip: Have extra baking soda and vinegar on hand – the kids usually want to do it again and again!). Check out our main Make a Volcano page which gives a detailed explanation of this activity…
Long Dinosaur Tail
This is one of those fun and simple dinosaur games (best if played outdoors or in a large party area). The birthday child is IT and starts running around the party area trying to tag other kids. Once someone is tagged, they hold hands and continue tagging others. The more people tagged the longer the dinosaur tail becomes! (everyone holds hands in a line). They keep going until the last one tagged becomes IT and starts the dinosaur tail from the beginning.
Ice Age
A few days before the party, freeze small plastic dinosaurs in little water containers. When the guests arrive take them to a kiddie pool filled with water and spill in all the frozen dinosaurs. Each kid gets to thaw a dinosaur out of the ice covering it, once they do so, they get to keep the dinosaur and take it home as a party favor!
Archaeologist Excavation Dinosaur Dig
If you have a large sandbox or even a small kids swimming pool, fill it with sand and hide all kinds of dinosaur trinkets – plastic dinosaurs, dino eggs (plastic Easter eggs), popsicle sticks, etc. Give each kid a little shovel and brush and let them dig up and see what they find!
If you want to go an extra mile, collect chicken bones a few weeks prior to the party, clean them up (throw away the small pointy parts), boil them to get them clean, let them dry and roll them in sand/mud to get them a bit dirty… then a few hours before the party dig deep in the sandbox and disperse them, then when the guests start the activity, tell them there are dinosaur bones they need to dig up!
This is one of those dinosaur games the kids will really enjoy. (TIP- if you live in a rural area, you may want to wait until just prior to the party to bury bone – small animals may dig them up if you do it the night before).
Hot Dinosaur Egg
This is similar to hot potato. All the kids stand/sit in a circle. One kid is handed either a water balloon or a real egg. The music starts and the balloon/egg (a.k.a. dinosaur egg) is passed to the next kid, once the music stops – the person holding the dino egg is out (no one wants to be left with the dinosaur egg, because then they’ll be extinct!). Continue playing until there is only one child left.
Hot Lava Tug-a-war
For this, one of the many fun dinosaur games, you’ll need a long rope and red blanket/towel. Lay down the red blanket/towel on the ground (this is going to be the lava). At the party divide all the guests into two teams (can be the Carnivores versus the Herbivores, T-Rexes verses Stegosauruses, etc.). Line each of the teams (so that they are standing one behind the other) on either side of the lava. Position the middle of the rope in the middle of the lava and on the mark of “GO” each team starts pulling on the rope (trying to get the other team in the hot lava). The first team to ‘fall’ into the hot lava loses. The kids can play as many rounds as they want (make sure to choose the teams fairly, so that there is around the same amount of strength on each side).
Dinosaur Egg Hunt
Use big plastic Easter eggs. Fill them with dinosaur toys, candies, etc (you can probably find all of these trinkets at the dollar store).
Hide the eggs in the yard or in a room and have the kids hunt for them.
Once each kid finds an egg, you can give them dinosaur stickers, paint or glitter and tell them to decorate their eggs.
Extinct Dinosaurs
Here’s one of those fun dinosaur games that’s like hide-and-go-seek (but a reverse version of it). Someone is chosen to be IT (the extinct dinosaur), this person hides while all the others close their eyes and count to 20. When done counting, everyone sets out to find the extinct dinosaur. If someone finds him/her, they quietly hide with them (trying to be as quiet as possible so that others don’t know where they are). One by one more dinosaurs become extinct joining the first extinct dinosaur. The last person who is still looking for the extinct dinosaur becomes IT and the Extinct Dinosaur games starts all over again.
Dino Egg on a Spoon
You’ll need dessert spoons, hard boiled eggs, silly putty eggs, plastic Easter eggs with a little present inside to weigh it down (possibly with a little dino) or any other form of “egg”. The goal here is to run from a starting point to a finishing line with an egg on a spoon. If the egg is dropped, the kid has to start again. You can work this as either a competition between teams, an individual timed race on an obstacle course, or just see who can make it the farthest without dropping their egg. This is one of those dinosaur games that has lots of laughs in store for everyone.
Pin the Tail on the T-Rex
Take a large poster of a T-Rex and attach it to the wall. Make a bunch of copies of the tail and cut each of them out. Then on each tail write each of the kid’s names and put tape on the back. Each guest then takes their turn while blindfolded to try and pin the tail on the T-Rex.
This can be altered to other dinosaurs, for example ‘Pin the Horn on the Triceratops’. It’s one of those dinosaur games the kids always love.
Brontosaurus, Brontosaurus, T-Rex
The kids form a small circle and all sit down. One person is it and he walks around the outside of the circle, touching the other children’s heads saying “Brontosaurus”, “Brontosaurus”, “Brontosaurus”, until he comes to the person whom he wants to chase him, he calls “T-Rex”. The T-Rex chases the player around the circle (while roaring like a T-Rex dinosaur) and the one who reaches the space first sits down… the person left standing becomes IT and starts all over.
Dinosaur Bone Bowling
This is one of those really fun dinosaur games. You’ll need 10 cans or plastic bottles. Cover each with white paper and use these Free Printable Bones to tape on each bottle (tape each bone so that they are perpendicular to the floor). Then set them as bowling pins in a safe outside area (driveway, hallway, park, etc.), and let the kids take turns rolling a coconut (or just a regular ball that you can call as “Dinosaur Egg”), and see who can knock down the most dinosaur bones. To make it harder, fill the bottles with water so that they are heavier to knock down. After each person’s turn they will need to reset the ‘dino bones’ for the next dino bowler.
Pinata – Dinosaur Games
Here’s a whole page on making your own homemade pinata. Pinatas are always a favorite and a great way to get the kids excited.
At the party the kids can use a caveman’s club for the pinata.
Also, cut strips of animal print fabric and tie around each guest’s head as well as a rope or piece of fabric around the waist (for that extra caveman touch).
If you want to create your own pinata, an easy choice is to make a dinosaur egg pinata -you can cover a huge upside-down balloon with paper mache and when dry fill with candy.
Dino Egg Stomp
In this game, every one has a balloon tied to a string around his/her ankle. The object of the game is to pop everyone else’s balloon while keeping theirs safe. Last one left with an intact balloon on their ankle gets a prize.
Dinosaur Egg Hatch
Take large balloons and put little trinkets in them before blowing each up (little things like erasers, whistles, etc.) and then tie each closed. Divide the group into two teams and give each person on each team a Dinosaur Egg (a balloon). On the mark of “GO” each team member does all they can to ‘hatch’ (pop) their dinosaur balloon egg. The first team to hatch all their eggs wins (this is one of those fun dinosaur games because at the end everyone gets a little present from popping their balloon). If you’ll be having little children at the party, make sure to carefully clean up all of the balloon remains… they can be a choke hazard.
Take a look at our complete Dinosaur Birthday Party section for more of the coolest party-planning ideas.
Kid Birthday Parties › Kid Activities › Dinosaur Games
Fossils Activity
All you’ll need for this dinosaur game are a few packages of air-drying clay or plaster of paris, plastic dinosaurs, leaves, plastic bugs, small bones you can take from chicken, turkey etc. Be creative! Prepare balls of clay beforehand. Have the kids flatten the clay balls and press the objects into the clay and then remove them. Then let the fossils dry. Let the kids decorate them with paint, glitter and other fun stuff. You can also take this one step further and do a fossil hunt.
I loved anything to do with dinosaurs when I was young (my kids are the same of course). I think I’ll enjoy this activity!
Create a Dino Egg
A day or 2 before the party blow up a bunch of balloons (small to medium sizes) and cover them with papier mache and set to dry. These will be dino eggs. You can either hide them and when everyone has an ‘egg’ tell them to go to the preferred location to decorate their ‘dino eggs’. Use markers, stickers, glitter or anything else you might want to use to decorate these magnificent dino eggs! Make sure to write names on the bottom or one side so the children can take them home :)
Dinosaur Egg Dig
We did a Dino Dig in our sandbox where all our little paleontologists were able to participate.
Pre-party Prep: Make Treasure Stones (Dino Eggs)
Mix 1 cup flour, 1 cup used coffee grounds, 1/2 cup sand, 1/2 cup salt together until thoroughly mixed. Then slowly add about 3/4 water. Kneed until the consistency of bread dough. Should be a little sticky, but not too sticky (if it’s too sticky, add a bit more flour). Form a ball about baseball size and form a hole in center where you can hide artifacts, skeleton bones, or toy dinosaurs. Take more dough to close in ball.
Bake at 150 degrees for about 15-20 minutes or layout to dry for about 3 days. Stones (Eggs) will harden. Add tempura paint for a variety of colors, or paint after they have hardened. Bury your eggs (stones) in the sand box.
Purchase shovels and cheap paint brushes at a dollar store and give each kids his tools for the dig. When they find a stone, they can break it open to see what is inside!
T-Rex Musical Dinousar Game
Cut out dinosaur paw prints from construction paper or cardboard, then play just like musical chairs, when the music stops take a dinosaur paw print away.
Egg Snatchers
2 teams. One team is the T-rex team, the other is the Triceratops team. The Triceratops team tries to put eggs (easter robbin egg candy) into a nest and the T-rexs’ try to put the eggs into a dinner plate. They have 2-3 minutes to snatch as many eggs as they can (stealing from the other team is allowed). Whoever has the most when the buzzer goes off, is the winning team.
The catch is they have to use those toy dino heads on a stick with the handle grasps that open and close the dino mouth. So no hands allowed to touch eggs.