Games with toy dinosaurs
Toy dinosaurs, or dinosaur figures, are such a versatile toy with endless possibilities for games. A while back I shared some of our ideas for sensory play with toy dinosaurs, and here’s your follow up with some more fun toy dinosaur ideas that are a little more mess free.
‘Which Dinosaur is Missing?’ Game
Place all of the toy dinosaurs onto a tray, and give your child a few minutes to look carefully and remember all of the dinosaurs. Then, cover with a cloth and ask them to close their eyes while you remove one or two dinosaurs. Once you uncover the cloth, can they recognise which dinosaur is missing?
Feely Bag Dinosaurs
Place a toy dinosaur into a cloth bag, or any opaque bag so that the children can not see inside. Let them use their hands inside the bag to describe the dinosaur based on their feeling of touch, and see if they are able to identify which type of dinosaur it is.
Dinosaur Portraits
Combine your dinosaur figures with coloured pencils and crayons to set up a dinosaur themed still life invitation to create.
Dinosaur Guess Who
Set all of the dinosaurs out in a line, and one player picks a dinosaur but doesn’t say which dinosaur they have in mind. The other player asks questions about the dinosaur like can it fly? does it stand on 2 legs or 4 legs? is it green / blue? is it a carnivore or herbivore etc – Until they can work out which is the right dinosaur.
Dinosaurs with books and playmats
Combining toy dinosaurs with dinosaur books can extend the play and fun of both items. Use the figures to act out stories, match them up to the same types of dinosaur within the book, or use the pictures as a backdrop for the dinosaur figures to play.
To give your dinosaurs somewhere else to stomp around, you can find free printable dinosaur play mats like these from Picklebums. If you’re feeling more creative, you can use a template like this one from Serving Pink Lemonade to make your own dinosaur felt play mat.
Or you can pass the task over to the kid and let them go wild designing their own dinosaur land on a large cardboard box. They can just design and colour it with felt tips, or stick coloured tissue to cover larger spaces more easily. If you want to expand the project them let them build a paper mache volcano like this one from Zing Zing Tree, or build their own junk modelled trees and a tin foil river to add to the dinosaurs habitat.
Free Play
Of course, you can’t forget the importance of free play with this type of toy. Left to their own devices, children will come up with endless amounts of fun games and uses for their little dinosaur friends!
Dinosaurs to Buy
The dinosaurs shown in our pictures are Schleich. These are great quality dinosaur figures, and we also have a softer set that are slightly smaller and cuter. Click the links* to see each dinosaur on Amazon
Set of dinosaur figures UK / US
More Dinosaur Activities
- Bubble Wrap Print Dinosaurs
- Dinosaur Party Ideas
- Inspiring Creativity with Dinosaurs
- Dinosaur Fossil Excavation Activity
- Dinosaur Sticky Wall
- Make Your Own Dinosaur Skeleton
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Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.
I love to see mine playing with their toy dinosaurs in ‘free play’, I think it’s great to see them using their imaginations and creativity.
We like to play dino ice age.
Freeze (cheap) dinos in containers (yogurt cartons, silicone muffin cases etc) and then chip/ warm water spray them out.
Great fun in summer