How to Create Your Own Dinosaur Games

Dinosaur games easily can be made for a kids party.

Kids like dinosaurs. The younger the child, the more dinosaurs fascinate them. Throwing a dinosaur party with dinosaur games is sure to be a hit. Being party games, they are fun played with a group of friends, family or alone.

Things You'll Need

• Chicken bones
• Sand
• Very large flat box, sandbox, or wading pool
• Plastic trowels
• Cheap paintbrushes
• Plastic bags
• Computer printer
• Full size white mailing labels
• 1/8-inch thick cardboard
• Craft knife or jig-saw
• Scissors
• Card stock
• Pencil
• Candy
• Pennies, nickels, or dimes

Instructions

How to Create Dinosaur Games

1. 

   Chicken bones look a lot like a Velociraptor.

   Fill a large flat box, sandbox, or wading pool with sand. Save chicken bones, cooking any that are from raw chicken. Bury the bones at a variety of places in the sand. Explain to the children that they are scientists searching for dinosaur bones, that they must be very careful when they find a bone, and must dust it off with their paint brush when they find it. Children can store their bones in a plastic bag.

2. 

   Make dinosaur jigsaw puzles.

   Find non-copyrighted pictures of dinosaurs on the internet and print them on full sized white mailing labels. Stick the labels to cardboard sheets. Use a craft knife, jig-saw, or scissors to cut a jigsaw puzzle from the pictures. Give each child the puzzle to solve or mix all the pieces up in the center of the kids to make it harder. Have each child earn puzzle pieces by answering dinosaur questions.

3. 

   Print dinosaur pictures to make a memory game.

   Make a memory game by printing double pictures of dinosaurs on cardstock. Cut the pictures into rectangles that are all equal. Lay the mixed-up cards on the floor in even rows, such as six across and five down. Be sure that you have two pictures of the same dinosaur. Number the backs of the cards, and tell each child that they must find matching dinosaurs to keep their turn. A mismatch means they loose their turn.

4. 

   Make the word search look like an ancient language.

   Create a dinosaur word search by looking up the names of at least seven dinosaurs. Make a grid of boxes big enough to hold the length of the names. Find places where the names share a letter and write one name horizontally and the other vertically at the intersection of the letter, much like a cross word puzzle. Fill in all the other boxes with random letters. Tell the children which seven words to look for.

5. 

   Print letters to make a word game.

   Find a dinosaur word and print each letter on a piece of card stock. Use the cards to spell the word on the floor, then turn the cards face down. Have the children guess letters until all the cards are turned up or the kids have guessed the word. Add more challenge to the game by having each child pay money or candy for each letter they guess wrong. The winner gets the pot of candy or money.

Tips & Warnings

• The word search can easily be made into a crossword puzzle for older children. Make your clues reflect the age and knowledge of the participants.

• Find old jigsaw puzzles to cover with your dinosaur pictures, then cut them apart.

• Make dinosaur hats or costumes to help the party goers get into the dinosaur mood.

• Set the stage with ferns, palms, and other tropical plants surrounding buckets of dry-ice and water to create the mists of the Jurassic.

• Play a CD of whale calls and another one of jungle sounds at the same time. This will sound like dinosaurs in the jungle.

References

• Dinosaur Games

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• Dinosaur Games!