Dinosaur Activities and Printable Game For Kids Who Are Dino Obsessed!

Does your kid love to stomp around and roar like a dinosaur? Or maybe they are older and love learning everything about dinosaurs and evolution as a budding paleontologist. Over the years I have loved watching out a love of dinosaurs inspires and excites kids. Which makes it a fantastic theme for learning! Here is a fun Dinosaur Name Matching Game, plus a few of our favourite dinosaur activities for kids.

Lessons and Activities with Dinosaurs for Kids

What you will discover in this article!

On a blue wood slate table lays a game named Dinosaur Name Matching Game with some dinosaur figures

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It always amazes me how kids may struggle to speak, but ask them about dinosaurs and suddenly they are chattering away, using these crazy big hard words, all while barely stopping for breath.

Thing is, I totally get it! I love dinosaurs too. I love the idea of exploring history. Long before humans walked on Earth, and seeing remnants of long extinct species that are so crazy different from anything on Earth now.

The idea of being a paleontologist, studying a world that existed over 65 million years ago, fascinates me. Exploring what life might have been like from the clues left behind, seems like it has to be one of the coolest jobs around.

I also really love knowing that dinosaurs, well their fossils, were the basis for the development of dragon legends across many cultures. Dinosaurs and dragons make me happy!

So I am always happy to indulge my kids fascination with dinosaurs and work them into our various projects and lessons.

Dinosaur Name Meanings

One of the things I love about studying dinosaurs is that there is something to fascinate kids (and adults) of all ages. Recently my teenager became very interested in learning about the origins of English words. Many of our words have Latin and Greek roots. This origin story of our language has been keeping him busy for weeks.

And guess what? Dinosaur names have some incredible meaning behind them!

Dinosaur names are usually made up from a combination of Greek and Latin root words that describe anatomical characteristics or how the animal might have behaved. But sometimes the names may honour a person or denote where the fossil remains were discovered. We have many dinosaur names that have been named after the region where we live, because we have some of the richest fossil beds in the world right here.

Pretty cool, eh? No wonder we are dinosaur obsessed!

So what are some of these names?

Here are a few examples:

Ankylosaurus means Stiff Lizard.

Tyrannosaurus means Tyrant Lizard

Velociraptor means Quick Plunderer

Spinosaurous means Spine Lizard

Triceratops means Three-Horned Face

Brontosaurus means Thunder Lizard. Pretty fitting for such a huge dinosaur!

Isn’t it amazing how fitting their names are once you know the meaning behind them?

Want a fun way to learn more meanings behind dinosaur names? I’ve got a Dinosaur Name Matching Game kids can play to learn what their favourite dinosaur names mean.

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More Dinosaur Activities For Kids

Hatching Dino Eggs

Hatching Dino Eggs is always a HUGE hit with kids of all ages (and yes I’m including adults!). Everyone loves the fizzy chemical react as their baby dinosaur is slowly released from its egg. Check out Hatching Fizzy Dino Eggs

Dinosaur Bath Bombs

Inspired by the incredible popularity of our Fizzing Dino Eggs activity, we decided to combine that idea with our new love of making bath bombs to create a fun Dinosaur Bath Bomb that is shaped like an egg and releases a baby dinosaur in your bath as the bath bomb creates a fizzy, fun bath time! Learn how to make your own Dinosaur Bath Bombs

Bucket List Dinosaur Trip to Drumheller

I mentioned how much I love dinosaurs and one of my big bucket list items is to find a fossil one day. It hasn’t happened yet, but I am still hopeful!

Hide and Seek Oobleck with Dinosaurs

My kids love their messy play with Oobleck. This fascinating non-Newtonian Fluid never gets boring, especially when there are so many cool things you can do with it. For your young dinosaur lovers, hide some dinosaurs in a bowl of Oobleck for them to excavate. They will be surprised how hard it is! Or up the challenge by asking them to identify the dinosaur just by trying to feel it in the Oobleck. Learn more about the challenging Hide and Seek Oobleck activity with Dinosaurs

Dinosaur Slime

Another great activity for kids is to incorporate some dinosaurs into a batch of slime for some fun dinosaur inspired sensory play. The Chaos and the Clutter has more details on their Dinosaur Slime here.

Build Dinosaurs from Lego

Another incredible activity for kids is to build dinosaurs from Lego and the best person to go to for inspiration on how to do these builds is Frugal Fun 4 Boys and Girls. She has the most fascinating Lego builds and her dinosaur builds are perfect for your dino loving kids! Get all the details on building Dinos with Lego here.