• 36 games
  • Checked October 2026

Dinosaur Birthday Party Games

Dinosaur party games in three sets by age: digs, egg hunts, tail games and quizzes with the answers written in.

Dinosaur Birthday Party Games

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  1. Fossil Rubbing Detectives1. A guessing game, with crayons. Cut flat shapes from thick card, such as a bone, a leaf, a shell, a footprint and a tooth, and tape each one under a sheet of paper on the table.2. Children rub the side of a crayon over each sheet until a shape appears.3. Each detective says what the fossil is before lifting the paper to check.4. Everyone takes their rubbings home.Youngest player: age 5. Players: 1 to 10. You need: card shapes, tape, paper and crayons with the wrappers off.
  2. Tallest Long-Neck From Newspaper1. A tower-building contest. Give each team ten sheets of newspaper, a roll of masking tape and a tennis ball.2. Teams have ten minutes to build a long-necked dinosaur that stands by itself.3. The tennis ball is the head and must sit at the top of the neck.4. At the whistle, hands off. After a count of ten, measure each one from the ground to the ball. The highest head wins.Youngest player: age 8. Players: 4 to 16. You need: ten sheets of newspaper, masking tape and a tennis ball for each team.
  3. Big Shadow, Little Shadow1. A shadow game on the wall. Darken the room and stand a lamp on a table, pointing at a bare wall.2. A grown-up holds a toy dinosaur in the beam. Close to the lamp, its shadow is huge, and the children stomp.3. Close to the wall, the shadow shrinks, and the children tiptoe.4. Let each child hold the dinosaur and make the others stomp or tiptoe.Youngest player: age 3. Players: 2 to 10. You need: a lamp or flashlight, a bare wall and a large toy dinosaur.

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Ages 3 and 4: no losers, no small parts 12

  • Big Shadow, Little Shadow 1. A shadow game on the wall. Darken the room and stand a lamp on a table, pointing at a bare wall. 2. A grown-up holds a toy dinosaur in the beam. Close to the lamp, its shadow is huge, and the children stomp. 3. Close to the wall, the shadow shrinks, and the children tiptoe. 4. Let each child hold the dinosaur and make the others stomp or tiptoe. Youngest player: age 3. Players: 2 to 10. You need: a lamp or flashlight, a bare wall and a large toy dinosaur.
  • Dig Up the Bones, Build the Skeleton 1. A sand dig, with a skeleton to put together at the end. Cut ten bones from cardboard, each bigger than a child's hand, and bury them in a sand tray or a sandbox. 2. Give every child a clean paintbrush. Children brush the sand away until a bone shows, then lift it out. 3. Carry the bones to an old sheet on the ground, where a grown-up has drawn the outline of a skeleton. 4. Everyone helps to lay each bone in its place. When the last bone is down, the whole dig team roars. Youngest player: age 3. Players: 2 to 10. You need: a sand tray or sandbox, ten cardboard bones, paintbrushes and a sheet with a skeleton outline.
  • Into the Cave 1. A run-for-home game. Hang a sheet over a table to make a cave big enough for everyone. 2. The children stomp around the room as small dinosaurs eating leaves. 3. A grown-up calls "big footsteps" and stamps slowly on the spot. Everyone hurries into the cave and keeps still. 4. When the grown-up says "all gone", the dinosaurs come out again. Nobody is caught and nobody is out. Youngest player: age 3. Players: 2 to 10. You need: a table and a sheet.
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Ages 3 and 4: no losers, no small parts, continued

  • Lava Back Into the Volcano 1. A beanbag toss. Roll cardboard into a wide cone as high as a child's chest, with an open top, and stand it on the floor or the grass as the volcano. 2. Scatter red and orange beanbags around it as lava. 3. Children pick up one piece of lava at a time and drop or throw it in at the top, from as close as they like. 4. When all the lava is back inside, a grown-up lifts the cone and the volcano erupts again. Youngest player: age 3. Players: 2 to 10. You need: a cardboard cone with an open top and red or orange beanbags.
  • Leaves for the Long-Necks 1. A reach-and-pick game. A grown-up clips green paper leaves along a string and hangs it across the room, some leaves at a child's head height and some just above. 2. The children are plant-eaters with long necks. One at a time, each stretches up on tiptoe and picks one leaf. 3. Carry the leaf to the feeding pile and go to the back of the line. 4. Keep going until the string is bare. The grown-up lowers the string for anyone who cannot reach. Youngest player: age 3. Players: 2 to 10. You need: a string, clothespins and green paper leaves.
  • Lost Eggs Back to the Nest 1. An egg hunt, with one nest for everyone. Tape large empty plastic eggs shut and hide them around the yard or the house at a small child's eye level. Make a nest from a laundry basket and a towel. 2. Tell the children that the eggs have rolled away, and say how many are missing. 3. Each child who finds an egg carries it back to the nest in two hands. 4. Count the eggs together until every one is home. Nobody counts who found the most. Youngest player: age 3. Players: 2 to 12. You need: large plastic eggs taped shut, a laundry basket and a towel.
  • Pass the Egg, Name the Baby 1. Pass the parcel, with nothing to unwrap. Sit in a circle and pass one big egg, such as a ball in a sock, from lap to lap while music plays. 2. When the music stops, the child holding the egg gives it a gentle hug. 3. That child says a name for the baby inside, and everyone repeats it. 4. Start the music again. Stop it so that every child holds the egg once. Youngest player: age 3. Players: 3 to 12. You need: a ball in a sock and music.
  • Press a Fossil to Take Home 1. A print-making table. Give each child a ball of salt dough to flatten into a thick round. 2. Children press a toy dinosaur's foot or a fern leaf into the dough and lift it out. 3. A grown-up sits at the table, because salt dough is not for eating, and scratches each child's first letter on the back. 4. Leave the fossils on a tray to dry and send each one home with its maker. Youngest player: age 3. Players: 1 to 8. You need: salt dough, large toy dinosaurs, fern leaves and a tray.
  • Roar Quiet, Roar Loud 1. A conductor game, with roars. The children stand facing a grown-up, who holds one hand at knee height. 2. Everyone roars as quietly as a whisper. 3. As the hand rises, the roar grows. A hand above the head is the biggest roar in the room. 4. When the hand drops to the floor, every dinosaur goes silent. Let each child have a turn as the hand. Youngest player: age 3. Players: 2 to 20. You need: nothing.
  • Scrub the Muddy Dinosaurs 1. A washing station for guests as they arrive. Put large toy dinosaurs, each bigger than a fist, in a tub of mud made from soil and water. 2. Set a second tub of clean water beside it, with scrubbing brushes and cloths. 3. Each child fishes out a muddy dinosaur and scrubs it clean. 4. Line the clean dinosaurs up on a towel in the sun. A grown-up stays at the tubs the whole time. Youngest player: age 3. Players: 1 to 6. You need: two tubs, soil, water, large toy dinosaurs, brushes and a towel.
  • Sleeping Eggs, Hatch in the Sun 1. Sleeping lions, with eggs that hatch. Every child curls up small on the floor as an egg. Dim the lights. 2. A grown-up walks around with a flashlight, which is the sun. 3. When the light rests on an egg's back, that egg wriggles, cracks open and stands up as a baby dinosaur. 4. Hatched babies tiptoe behind the sun and help to choose the next egg. Play until every egg has hatched. Youngest player: age 3. Players: 2 to 15. You need: a flashlight.
  • Stomp Like a Giant, Scurry Like a Small One 1. A stop-and-go drum game, with two speeds. A grown-up beats a slow drum, and the children take huge, heavy steps. 2. A fast, light beat means small dinosaurs, with quick little steps on tiptoe. 3. When the drum stops, everyone freezes with claws up. 4. Nobody is out. Hand the drum to a child for the last round. Youngest player: age 3. Players: 2 to 20. You need: a drum, or a pot and a wooden spoon.

Ages 5 to 7 12

  • Bone Puzzle Race 1. A jigsaw race. Draw the same simple skeleton on two sheets of cardboard and cut each into eight bones. Keep a drawing of the finished skeleton where both teams can see it. 2. Mix each set in a pile at the far end of the yard. 3. Team members run one at a time to fetch one bone. 4. The first team to lay out the whole skeleton, with every bone in its place, wins. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 4 to 16. You need: two cardboard skeletons cut into eight bones each and a drawing of the whole.
  • Build a Nest the Whole Team Fits In 1. A building race. Give each team the same pile of towels, cushions, sticks and a sheet. 2. Teams have five minutes to build a nest on the grass with a wall all the way around. 3. At the whistle, the whole team sits inside with its egg, a ball, in the middle. 4. A grown-up judges and gives every nest a title: the tallest wall, the roundest, the coziest. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 4 to 16. You need: towels, cushions, sticks, a sheet and a ball for each team.
  • Claw Grab Relay With Kitchen Tongs 1. A relay, with tongs for claws. Scatter a pile of cardboard bones at one end of the yard and put a box for each team at the other as its nest. 2. The first runner in each team carries kitchen tongs to the pile and picks up one bone with them. No fingers. 3. Carry the bone back in the tongs, drop it in the nest and hand the tongs on. 4. A dropped bone is picked up again with the tongs. The first nest with ten bones wins. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 4 to 16. You need: kitchen tongs and a box for each team, and cardboard bones.
  • Cracked Egg Halves Hunt 1. A matching hunt. Each child colors a paper egg with a pattern of their own. A grown-up cuts every egg in two with a zigzag crack. 2. The children keep one half and close their eyes while the other halves are hidden around the room. 3. Everyone hunts for the half that fits theirs. A child who finds another child's half leaves it where it is. 4. Tape each mended egg to the wall. Finished hunters may give hot and cold clues. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 3 to 15. You need: paper eggs, crayons, scissors for the grown-up and tape.
  • Egg on Your Back, Home on All Fours 1. A balance race, on hands and feet. Lay a beanbag egg on each racer's back. 2. Racers crawl from the start line to their nest, a hoop on the ground, without letting the egg slide off. 3. A racer whose egg falls stops, puts it back and goes on from there. 4. Run it in heats of three or four. Finish with one slow heat, in which the last egg home wins. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 3 to 16. You need: a beanbag and a hoop for each racer in a heat.
  • Follow Your Own Tracks 1. A treasure trail. Cut three kinds of paper footprint, such as three toes, a round pad and a long claw, about ten of each. Lay three trails that cross each other and end in three hiding places. 2. Give each team a card that shows one kind of print. 3. Teams follow only their own tracks, stepping beside them and never on them. 4. At the end of each trail is a box with a small prize for everyone on that team. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 3 to 15. You need: paper footprints of three kinds, three cards and three boxes of small prizes.
  • Fossil Rubbing Detectives 1. A guessing game, with crayons. Cut flat shapes from thick card, such as a bone, a leaf, a shell, a footprint and a tooth, and tape each one under a sheet of paper on the table. 2. Children rub the side of a crayon over each sheet until a shape appears. 3. Each detective says what the fossil is before lifting the paper to check. 4. Everyone takes their rubbings home. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 1 to 10. You need: card shapes, tape, paper and crayons with the wrappers off.
  • Measure the Footprint in Sneakers 1. A guessing game, with a giant footprint. Draw a three-toed footprint as long as a grown-up's arm on cardboard and cut it out. 2. Each child guesses how many of their own shoes would fit along it, heel to toe. Write the guesses down. 3. One at a time, children walk heel to toe along the print while everyone counts. 4. A child whose guess matches their own count chooses the next game. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 2 to 12. You need: a big cardboard footprint, paper and a pen.
  • Plate Snatch: Clothespins Down Your Back 1. Clothespin tag, with the pins as back plates. A grown-up clips four clothespins along the back of each child's shirt. 2. On "go", children try to pull plates off other players while keeping their own. 3. A plate you take is clipped to your own sleeve. Nobody may hold their own back or lie down. 4. Stop after two minutes. A child with no plates left keeps playing, and the most plates on back and sleeves wins. Youngest player: age 6. Players: 4 to 16. You need: four clothespins for each child.
  • Tail Swipe Bowling 1. Bowling, with a tail for the ball. Stuff one leg of an old pair of tights with newspaper and tie it around a child's waist so that the tail hangs behind. 2. Stand six empty plastic bottles in a row. 3. The child stands with their back to the bottles and has three swipes to knock them down, swinging the tail by turning the hips. No hands. 4. Count the fallen bottles, stand them up and pass the tail on. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 2 to 12. You need: old tights stuffed with newspaper and six empty plastic bottles.
  • Tar Pit Tag, Pulled Out by Two 1. Freeze tag, with a tar pit. One or two children are the tar. Anyone they tag stands still with both arms out, stuck. 2. A stuck dinosaur is freed only when two free players each take one hand and pull together for a count of three. 3. Swap the tar every two minutes, so that nobody chases for long. 4. Play on grass, and tag with a flat hand below the shoulders. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 6 to 20. You need: nothing.
  • Which Dinosaur Walks Like This? 1. Charades, with only four answers. Show four pictures, of Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Stegosaurus and Brachiosaurus. 2. One child secretly picks a picture and walks across the room as that dinosaur. 3. The body gives the clue: elbows tucked in for the small arms of Tyrannosaurus, three finger horns for Triceratops, hands fanned along the back for the plates of Stegosaurus, one arm stretched high for the long neck of Brachiosaurus. 4. The first to point to the right picture walks next. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 3 to 15. You need: four dinosaur pictures.

Ages 8 and up, with the quiz answers 12

  • Buried Skeleton on a Grid 1. The pencil game sea battle, with a buried skeleton for the fleet. Each of two players draws two grids of five squares by five, lettered across and numbered down. 2. On one grid, each hides a skeleton in three pieces: a skull of one square, a spine of three in a row and a tail of two. 3. Players take turns to call a square, such as B4. The other answers "bone" or "dirt", and the caller marks the second grid. 4. The first to dig up all six squares of the other skeleton wins. Youngest player: age 8. Players: 2. You need: paper and a pencil each.
  • Capture the Egg 1. Capture the flag, with an egg in a nest. Split the yard in two with a rope. Each team puts a ball, its egg, in a hoop at the back of its half. 2. Players cross the line to steal the other egg and carry it home. 3. A player tagged in the other team's half is stuck in the tar and stands still until a teammate tags them free. 4. An egg carrier who is tagged gives the egg back. The first team to bring the other egg home wins. Tags are a flat hand below the shoulders. Youngest player: age 8. Players: 8 to 20. You need: a rope, two hoops and two balls.
  • Describe the Dinosaur in the Box 1. A describe-and-draw game. Put a toy dinosaur in a box where only one player, the fossil hunter, can see it. 2. The hunter describes it without naming it: how many legs it stands on, the shape of its head, what is on its back. 3. Everyone else draws what they hear. No questions. 4. Lift the dinosaur out and compare. The hunter picks the closest drawing, and that artist describes the next one. Youngest player: age 8. Players: 3 to 15. You need: a box, a few toy dinosaurs, paper and pencils.
  • Invent a Dinosaur: Name It, Draw It 1. A drawing and guessing game. Tell the players that Tyrannosaurus means tyrant lizard, Stegosaurus roof lizard and Brachiosaurus arm lizard. 2. Each player invents a new kind of lizard, such as a pillow lizard or a trumpet lizard, writes the name on the back of a sheet and draws the animal on the front. 3. Hold up the drawings one at a time. Everyone guesses what kind of lizard it is. 4. The artist scores a point for every player who guesses the name. Youngest player: age 8. Players: 3 to 15. You need: paper and pencils.
  • Match the Name to Its Meaning 1. A matching race on cards. Write four names on cards and their four meanings on four more: Tyrannosaurus, tyrant lizard; Triceratops, three-horned face; Stegosaurus, roof lizard; Brachiosaurus, arm lizard. 2. Make a set for each team and shuffle it. 3. On "go", teams pair each name with its meaning. 4. The first team with all four pairs right wins. The pairs in the first step are the answers. Youngest player: age 8. Players: 2 to 16. You need: eight cards for each team and a pen.
  • Pace Out a Dinosaur 1. An estimating game on a long stretch of grass or sidewalk. Mark a start line as the nose. 2. Name a dinosaur. Each team walks out to where it thinks the tail would end and leaves a shoe there. 3. A grown-up measures the true length from the line with a tape or a knotted string: Tyrannosaurus 12 meters (about 39 feet), Triceratops and Stegosaurus 9 meters (about 30 feet), Brachiosaurus 22 meters (about 72 feet). 4. The nearest shoe scores a point. Then the whole party lies down head to toe along the string, to see how many children long it was. Youngest player: age 8. Players: 4 to 20. You need: a long tape measure or a knotted string.
  • Plant-Eater or Meat-Eater? Run to Your Wall 1. A true-or-false run, with two walls. Name one wall "plants" and the other "meat". 2. Call a dinosaur. Players run to the wall for what it ate and touch it. 3. Tyrannosaurus ate meat, and Triceratops, Stegosaurus and Brachiosaurus ate plants. 4. Then rename the walls "two legs" and "four legs". Tyrannosaurus walked on two legs, and Triceratops and Brachiosaurus on four. A player at the wrong wall does three stomps and plays on. Youngest player: age 8. Players: 3 to 30. You need: nothing.
  • Skeleton From Memory 1. The memory tray game, with a layout to rebuild. Lay ten cardboard bones on a tray as a skeleton and cover it with a cloth. 2. Give each team its own set of the same ten bones. 3. Lift the cloth for one minute while everyone looks, then cover the tray again. 4. Teams rebuild the skeleton from memory. Uncover the tray and score a point for every bone that is in the right place and the right way around. Youngest player: age 8. Players: 2 to 16. You need: a tray, a cloth and a set of ten cardboard bones for the tray and for each team.
  • Steal a Tail, Grow a Herd 1. Tail tag, with nobody out. Every player tucks a strip of cloth into the back of a waistband as a tail. 2. On "go", players try to pull out other tails while guarding their own. 3. A player who loses a tail joins hands with whoever took it and runs as part of that herd. Only the front player of a herd may grab. 4. Play until two herds are left. The bigger herd wins. Youngest player: age 8. Players: 6 to 20. You need: a strip of cloth for each player.
  • Stomp for True, Freeze for False 1. A true-or-false game on the spot. Read a statement about a dinosaur. 2. On the count of three, players stomp both feet if they think it is true and freeze if they think it is false. 3. These four are true: Stegosaurus had bony plates along its back, Tyrannosaurus had small arms for its size, Brachiosaurus had front legs longer than its back legs, and the name Triceratops means three-horned face. 4. These three are false: Triceratops ate meat, Stegosaurus means tyrant lizard, and Tyrannosaurus walked on four legs. Players keep their own score. Youngest player: age 8. Players: 2 to 30. You need: nothing.
  • Tallest Long-Neck From Newspaper 1. A tower-building contest. Give each team ten sheets of newspaper, a roll of masking tape and a tennis ball. 2. Teams have ten minutes to build a long-necked dinosaur that stands by itself. 3. The tennis ball is the head and must sit at the top of the neck. 4. At the whistle, hands off. After a count of ten, measure each one from the ground to the ball. The highest head wins. Youngest player: age 8. Players: 4 to 16. You need: ten sheets of newspaper, masking tape and a tennis ball for each team.
  • Track the Herd 1. Hare and hounds, with chalk footprints. Half the party is the herd and sets off with a grown-up and a piece of chalk. 2. The herd draws a three-toed footprint on the ground every twenty steps, pointing the way it went, and hides at the end of the trail. 3. After five minutes, the trackers follow the prints with a second grown-up. 4. When the herd is found, swap sides. Agree the boundary before the first herd leaves, and stay inside it. Youngest player: age 8. Players: 6 to 20. You need: chalk and two grown-ups.

How this list was compiled: Our suggestions for a child's dinosaur birthday party, in three sets by age. The wording, the ages and the player counts are ours. Each starts from a game or an activity children already know, named in its first step, with a dinosaur prop or rule added. Nobody is blindfolded, and no game uses food or balloons. Every dinosaur fact (what it ate, how it walked, its length, the meaning of its name, plates, horns, arms and neck) was checked on 2026-10-09 against the Natural History Museum's Dino Directory: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/dino-directory/tyrannosaurus.html , https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/dino-directory/triceratops.html , https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/dino-directory/stegosaurus.html and https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/dino-directory/brachiosaurus.html . Lengths in feet are our conversions of the museum's meters. Licence: own work

How it works

Each of these dinosaur birthday party games starts from something children already know, with a bone, an egg, a tail or a footprint added. The set for ages 3 and 4 has no losers and no small parts.

Read the full guide

Dinosaur themed party games, in party order

1. As guests arrive: Scrub the Muddy Dinosaurs or Fossil Rubbing Detectives, which need no start time. 2. While energy is high: a running game such as Tar Pit Tag, Pulled Out by Two or Capture the Egg. 3. Before the cake: one dig or one hunt. 4. To calm down: Press a Fossil to Take Home or Invent a Dinosaur: Name It, Draw It.

What to make beforehand

Cardboard bones bigger than a hand, paper footprints, a stuffed tail and a cardboard volcano are the things to make ahead. The plastic eggs are taped shut and stay empty.

  • Cut a big batch of cardboard bones in one go. Four games use them.

Questions and answers

What are good dinosaur party games for 3 year olds?

Games in which nobody is out: Lost Eggs Back to the Nest, Into the Cave, Roar Quiet, Roar Loud and Dig Up the Bones, Build the Skeleton. The toys and the bones are bigger than a child's fist.

What are good dinosaur party games for 8 year olds?

Games with teams, rules and real facts: Capture the Egg, Tallest Long-Neck From Newspaper, Pace Out a Dinosaur and three quiz games whose answers are written into the steps, checked against the Natural History Museum's Dino Directory.

What do you need for a dinosaur dig game?

A sand tray or a sandbox, ten cardboard bones bigger than a child's hand and a clean paintbrush for each digger. Draw a skeleton outline on an old sheet, so that the bones can be laid in place at the end.

Can dinosaur party games be played indoors?

Most of them. 26 of the 36 fit a living room with the furniture pushed back. The rest need a yard, among them Capture the Egg, Track the Herd and Pace Out a Dinosaur.

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