AD Do you have a child who loves dinosaurs? These prehistoric beasts have a huge appeal which makes them a brilliant party theme for both boys and girls. As they are so popular it is really easy to fully embrace the dinosaur theme whether you want to buy everything or have DIY homemade decorations and food. This post will guide you through some of the best dinosaur present ideas, party activities, decorations, food and party bag ideas to ensure a roarsome dinosaur themed party.
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| Dinosaurs make a fun and colourful theme for a children's birthday party |
Contents
- Dinosaur Gift Ideas For Children
- Dinosaur Themed Party Activities
- Dinosaur Themed Party Food
- Dinosaur Themed Party Decorations
- Dinosaur Themed Alternative Party Bag Ideas
How To Plan A Dinosaur Themed Birthday Party
Just like any party you first need to decide on: budget, the date and how many people you want to invite. You can then start to think about the venue, food, activities and other details. In this guide I have shared ideas for the key elements which will make a great party.
Dinosaur Themed Gifts For Children (that are more exciting than plastic dinosaur toys)
A key part of birthdays for children is the presents and there are so many dinosaur gift options it can be overwhelming. There are only so many plastic dinosaurs one child can play with though, so here are a selection of dinosaur gifts that are a little bit different. These gifts are suitable from age 2 to around age 10.
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| Great present ideas from Wicked Uncle for dinosaur lovers |
Janod Wooden Dinosaur Magnets
This set has 24 magnets consisting of 18 cute dinosaurs and 6 related magnets. You can stick them on the fridge, dishwasher or even get a magnetic board. They are great for story telling and imaginative play. A great present for a 2 or 3 year old.
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| These cute dinosaur magnets are fun or toddlers |
Floss & Rock Dinosaur Stick & Play Reusable Stickers
This is a really nicely thought out sticker set. It comes with a folder containing 50 reusable stickers and 3 scenes. They clearly aren't going for historical accuracy as illustrated by the cave people with pet dinosaurs, but I can forgive them the creative license. What I really like is at the back of the folder there are 3 pages with the outlines of the stickers so there is somewhere you can store the ones that aren’t on the scenes. It also encourages matching of shapes. Suitable for 3 plus, I think this is a perfect gift for a dinosaur loving 4 or 5 year old.
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| This dinosaur reusable sticker set is great for travel or rainy days |
Janod Dinosaur Scratch Art
Suitable for age 5 plus this is a great present for arty children who have a bit of patience. It contains 5 dinosaur shapes with outlines and you can scratch off patterns to make colourful designs. There are suggested pattern cards or they can just create their own designs. Even if they just scratch all of the covering off they will look great. This gift will be popular with creative children and even my 11 year old thought they were fun.
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| Scratch off the patterns in this set to make colourful dinosaur designs |
Natural History Museum Torch and Projector
Projector torches are popular with my children and we have a few different designs. This one comes with 3 discs and 24 dinosaur images in total which includes whole dinosaurs, close ups of different parts and some skeletons. The images are designed to be in focus at 1 metre across allowing lots of detail to be visible in a dark room. If you twist the the yellow section of the torch you can fine tune the image to make it clearer.
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| This torch can project dinosaur images on the wall |
Dinosaurs Temporary Tattoos
These dinosaur tattoos have been artistically drawn and are probably similar to how they actually looked rather than the more cartoon designs you often see. You get 50 temporary tattoos in the book in 30 different designs (some are duplicated). Each tattoo has the name of the dinosaur on the back of the paper. At the back of the book it tells you how to say each dinosaurs name and tells you a little about them, where they lived and their size.
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| Temporary tattoos that teach you about dinosaurs |
For lots more brilliant Dinosaur gift ideas click here.
Dinosaur Themed Party Activities For Children
Make A Dinosaur Habitat
This a great party activity where you can give children something to take
away.
You need:
- a small tray per child (a multi pack of those thin plastic food containers like you get Chinese takeaway in work well or you can look for seed trays in the garden centre),
- some stones,
- a bag of compost,
- little plastic dinosaurs,
- either some small plants or some seeds (cress, mustard or even grass seed work well).
Encourage children to fill the tray with compost, create a rocky area with the stones and then plant a forest (either the small plant or seeds) before adding a dinosaur or 2.
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| Making a dinosaur habitat is a simple activity that children will love |
Pin The Tail On The Dinosaur
You can buy kits for pin the tail on the dinosaur, spikes on dinosaurs or make one yourself. No one will mind if your dinosaur isn’t art gallery worthy. If making yourself try making the tails out of sticky paper, write the child's name on, peel off the back, blindfold them, spin them around and aim them at the dinosaur.
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| This is a fun dinosaur themed party game |
Dinosaur Dig
Children will love to excavate for fossils and dinosaurs. This works best if you have a sand box and can encourage them to gently use a paint brush to look for the dinosaurs, but if you want less mess or an easier activity for younger ones you can use shredded paper or packing materials.
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| Dig for dinosaurs, fossils or bones in sand |
Dinosaur Modelling
Why not get children to create their own dinosaur which they can take home? There are lots of different materials you can use depending on the children's ages and your budget. For younger children something as simple as having cardboard dinosaur outlines they can colour in or stick things on works well. For older children using air drying modelling clay is fun. If you create a few simple designs in advance and have them on display it can help inspire the guests and give them something to copy.
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| Make dinosaur models in air drying clay that guests can take home |
Film Time
Watching a film with some snacks is a great party choice for small groups of older children who will stay still for longer periods. Dinosaur film choices include: Ice Age: Dawn of the dinosaurs or the The Land Before Time (for children 6 plus) and Jurassic Park (minimum age 8, but get parents pre-agreement).Easy Dinosaur Themed Party Food Ideas
When it comes to food you can either use props to make the food area dinosaur themed or you can have fun with the actual food. In the run up to the party keep an eye out in the supermarkets for anything you can prebuy that's dinosaur themed eg dinosaur jelly sweets or breaded turkey shapes. Here are a few easy dinosaur themed foods you can make.
Dinosaur Biscuits
Start by make a sugar biscuit dough as it retains it's shape well in the oven. You can then either use dinosaur shaped cookie cutters to make dinosaur shapes or make them round and use a dinosaur toy to make a footprint imprint. A good clean should ensure the toy is safe to use, but if you are worried you can use a layer of loose cling film between the cookie and the toy while you are making the imprint (remove before cooking obviously).
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| Dinosaur themed food is fun and easy to make |
Dinosaur Sandwiches
Make sandwiches as normal then cut the bread into dinosaur shapes. You can use cookie cutters if you want, but we have a specially designed tool that cuts 2 dinosaurs out of each sandwich to reduce waste. You still create a lot of waste as the crusts aren't used, but as a lot of party food doesn't get eaten anyway I don't worry too much.
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| Use a dinosaur sandwich cutter to make dinosaur shaped sandwiches easily |
Dinosaur Cupcakes
Make any type of cupcake you like and after icing them (using frosting, royal icing or a simple icing sugar and water mix) add a row of spikes. You can create triangular spikes out of ready rolled icing or those diamond jelly cake decorations. I have used those mini orange and lemon jellies and cut them in half. If they need help stay in place on royal icing try using a little bit of jam as glue.
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| Make cupcakes dinosaur themed by adding spikes |
Dino Popcorn
A really simple snack that's great for a buffet or while watching a dinosaur film. Simple pour popcorn into a bowl and then put a few dinosaur gummy sweets on top. You might want to make this is individual cups to avoid little hands digging through a big bowl.
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| Adding dinosaur jelly sweets makes any snack dinosaur themed |
Dinosaur Pizza
Pizzas make a good party food and they are just as popular whether they are hot or cold. To make these suitable for our dinosaur party I made a dinosaur out of salami, but you could alternatively use ham, pepperoni, mushroom, pepper or pineapple pieces.
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| Easy peasy dinosaur pizza |
Dinosaur Themed Party Decoration Ideas
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| Enjoying a dinosaur themed party |
Footprints
Dinosaur footprints are a fun decoration that will get guests stomping around and following their path. You can buy some ready made ones that stick on the floor or make your own. If you can buy a role of green or black sticky back plastic and trace round a footprint shape this is really easy to stick a path across the room. Because they are stuck down they shouldn't become a slip hazard. This works great on carpet, tiles or multi surface floors, but if you have delicate wood you might want to avoid this and blu tack a trail of footprints across the wall instead.
Balloons
Balloons are an easy and affordable way to add colour and decoration across a large space. Go for shades or green with maybe some orange or black added in. Green seems to be a standard dinosaur colour, plus it’s the colour of foliage. If you want reusable decorations then green paper fans are a great option. If you are planning a party along way in advance have a look in the shops around St Patricks day for lots of green decor options.
Leaves and Foliage
Big leaves and plants create a great prehistoric feel. Look for paper leaf shapes, branches of fake foliage like ferns or ivy or even some real plants.
Dinosaur Paper Hats Or Masks
There are lots of dinosaur masks you can buy quite cheaply or a really fun option I have seen is a dinosaur hat complete with tail made from large sheets of paper. You can mostly premake them and just bring a stapler or tape to make the headband the right size for each child. They are basically a green band round the head and a strip of paper across the top of the head and down their back with triangles spikes on.
Green Table Cloths
Make your tables for food or presents look great with a green table cloth. Shop around for what is best value: you can get green fabric by the metre or disposable plastic or paper table cloths. If you want something reusable you will need to pay a little more as even many that market themselves as resuable are so thin they get ripped and can't be cleaned easily. If you can get some cheap fake grass for the main food table and decorate with dinosaurs that will look great too (some people will have offcuts available for free).
Alternative Party Bags Ideas
There are so many small plastic dinosaur themed toys, sweets and stickers you can buy that if this is the way you want to go you shouldn’t have a problem sourcing items. If you are using bags green paper bags look good or you can use any colour and decorate with a dinosaur sticker or stamping a dino footprint on (potato printing is an easy way to do this and you can get your children to help).
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| Dinosaur themed party bags can be really simple to make, or try the alternatives suggested below |
Alternative party bag ideas are:
Books
Either go for a dinosaur story book or a colouring book with pencils and wrap them up in a ribbon so children can choose which one they want while still looking a bit special. You can often buy multi-packs of books which work out around £1 each making it a good budget option.
Dinosaur Biscuit Making Kit
What about putting a little kit together so guests can make their own dinosaur biscuits at home? Measure out flour and sugar and put in food bags, add in a dinosaur cookie cutter and a tube of icing (you can get multipacks so add one tube to each bag). Make sure to include instructions including how much butter and egg to add and cooking times. If you want to spend a bit more but make your life a bit easier head to the shops and get the boxes of biscuit making sets and repackage them with a dinosaur cookie cutter.
Bag Of Sweets
The first thing my children are interested in when they get a party bag is the sweets and they often don't investigate further until all the sweets are eaten so at recent parties I have made it simple and stuck to just sweets. I cut out plastic by using paper bags with a sticker to keep it closed (or for older children give them a bag and allow them to make their own pick and mix from sweets poured into bowls).
A Cuddly Dinosaur
Dino Poop Bath Bombs
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| Having a roarsome time |
Disclosure: I hope you love these dinosaur birthday party ideas. This post is in collaboration with Wicked Uncle. I chose products from their website and received compensation for writing this post however all ideas are my own.
Click here for more dinosaur related posts including days out, games and crafts.
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