Dinosaur Unit for Elementary Kids – Fun, Hands-on Learning Activities

Get ready to have fun learning about the large animals that roamed the earth long ago with this fun dinosur unit In this dinosaur unit 2nd grade  we have lots of fun and creative ways for kids to learn and play with dinosaur activites, free dinosaur printables, and so much more. These fun dinosaur activities for elementary students are perfect for kindergarten, first grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, and 4th grade students. Simply print dinosaur printables and you are ready to play and learn with this dinosaur lesosn plans.

Dinosaur Unit 2nd Grade

Instead of using a pre-made dinosaur curriculum for elementary, I like to pull our out dinosaur theme together to add lots of fun, hands-on dinosaur activities for kids loaded with educational activities for all subjects. Thi Dinosaur Unit included lots of creative dinosaur activities for 2nd grade  in our dinosaur lesson plans. We have dinosaur books, dinosaur crafts, lots of learning activities, and free dinosaur printables for elementary grades. Whether you are a parent looking for ideas for your dinosaur lover, homeschooler planning a dinosour theme, or a teacher looking for a dinosaur unit 2nd grade  – you will love using these ideas. The following dinosaur for kids ideas are perfect for preschoolers, kindergartners, grade 1, grade 2, grade 3, and grade 4 students.

Dinosaur Lesson Plans

Start by scrolling to the bottom of the post, under the terms of use, and click on the text link that says >> _____<<. The pdf file will open in a new window for you to save the freebie and print the template.

Dinosaur Craft

We made fun paper-mache dinosaur eggs  and then hatched them. They were a lot of fun to make and  a fun decoration for our dinosaur study for kids.  First we picked a dinosaur we wanted to hatch and put it inside a balloon. (Just go slowly and stretch the neck open before sliding it in). Then we blew up the balloon to the size of a dinosaur egg – ours was about 5” tall.

Next I mixed up some paper mache by putting 1 cup water & 1 cup flour in saucepan over medium heat and mixing until smooth and thick. I put it in a bowl and allowed it to cool slightly while we cut up paper strips. Using warm paper mache provides a wonderful sensory activity!  Goofy (1st grade) dipped the paper in the the paste, removed excess paste, and put the strips criss-cross all over the balloon. The paper mache recipe was enough to make two 5” dinosaur eggs.

Allow dinosaur egg to fully dry – about 24 hours, turning half way to ensure it dries on the bottom too. We set ours on canning jar lids – it worked perfectly.

Finally, Goofy painted the eggs a light brown color (although we don’t actually know what color all dinosaur eggs were).
After the eggs dried we put them in a next. And one day…. Goofy helped them hatch by cracking them open and found baby dinosaurs inside!

Dinosaur Science Activities for Elementary

We had so much fun with our Dinosaur Science Preschool play I wrote up a whole separate post on it!

First Grade Dinosaur Unit

We played the dinosaur track sight word game you can find in Reading the Easy Way – 1st Grade.  My first grader had so much fun practicing these key Dolch Sight Words in a dino fun way!

Dinosaur Unit

I had my grade 1 student pick two dinosaurs andcompare and contrast the dinosaurs for this dinosaur writing activity. (worksheet included in the pack below) He used the dinosaur books we had to explore these 2 dinosaurs in depth and find their similarities and differences.

Dinosaur Writing Prompt

The kids wrote stories about their pet dinosaurs. Goofy (1st grade) illustrated and wrote his story; then I went though and corrected it with him. Minnie (Preschool, but almost K) drew her picture, traced the text, and then she dictated her story to me that I wrote on the back.

Link for these dinosaur writing prompts below. [See more writing prompts]

Dinosaur Activity for kids

You can easily make your own fun dinosaur excavation activity.  Simply mix up the following and press it around these dinosaur skeletons  we’ve used over and over this unit.  Add extra around all sides and allow it to harden.

• 1 1/4 cups dirt
• 1 1/4 cups of flour
• 3/4 cups salt
• 1/2 cup sand
• Water  (to moisten)

Once it is hard just use a toy hammer, stick, paint brush, and goggles to have your own dinosaur excavation dig!

Dinosaur Art Project for Kids

Elementary age kid swill have fun making this 3d dinosaur craft where you can feel the dinosaur skeletings. It feels like a really cool archeologist project for a dionsaur scientist. We made this really cool Dinosaur Art project using plaster of paris. It turned out so cool!

 

Pick a Tupperware, plastic container, lid (surrounded by paper rim), etc. as your mold. We used an Olive Garden food take-home container. Next we pressed playdough into our mold so it was deep enough to get a good impression of our dinosaur. (I used this simple homemade playdough recipe). Press the dinosaur of your choice into the playdough.

   

Next, mix up some Plaster of Paris following the directions – ours used 3 parts plaster to 1 part water. For our project we needed 1 1/2 cup plaster and 1/2 cup water. Stir and pour into dino mold and cover all of playdough until the top of  your mold. Tap slightly to remove air bubbles.

 

Wait about 45 minutes (the instructions say 30, but wait longer!). Flip over mold and carefully remove mold. Next you are going to remove the playdough. Use the block of playdouh to help get the extra remaining playdough. You will have a very cook raised impression of a dinosaur!

  

Goofy was so proud of his dinosaur! We choose to paint around the edges and make it look like an archeological dig site. We also had the dinosaur step in green paint to make his tracks.

Dinosaur Activities for 2nd Grade

If you are looking for other fun, free dinosaur printables to make learning fun with a dinosaur theme you will love these resources:

• Dinosaur Dinosaur Math
• Color Matching Dinosaur Activity
• Dino Number Recognition Games
• Cute Hand Dinosaur Craft for Toddlers
• Dinosaur Unit 2nd Grade and elementary age students
• Printable Dinosaur Color by Number Worksheets
• D is for Dinosaur
• Find the Letter Dinosaur Alphabet Printables Fun
• Dino Bones Punctuation Game
• Dinosaur Worksheets Preschool
• Dinosaur Printables
• Dinosaur Science Preschool

• Dinosaur Kindergarten STEM Activities
• Free Dinosaur Math Worksheets or these colorful Dinosaur Math Worksheets
• Hands-on Dinosaur Fossil Activities for Kids with free printables
• Printable Dinosaur Templates for craft projects
• Paleontologist Worksheet Pack
• TONS of Dinosaur Activities for kids of all ages
• Even more ideas to add to your dinosaur theme or dinosaur theme preschool
• Color Matching Dinosaur Activities
• Printable Dinosaur Sight Words Activity

Dinosaur Books for Kids

• The first two are good Bible based dinosaur books that explain events from a creationist perspective.
• The 3rd book (by Aliki) is a good, easy to read book with a lot of good information about how dinosaurs are dug up. If you are a creationist you may want to gloss over the millions of years part or use it as a teaching tool.
• Tyrannosaurus Sue has some good information about the most complete Tyrannosaurus skeleton found. You can take a fieldtrip to see her at the Field Museum in Chicago, IL.
• The last 2 books are good dinosaur specific books. I feel like the Dinosaur A to Z is slightly easier to read with slightly more information, but the National Geographic one has 2x the dinosaurs. So you decide how many dinosaurs you want to learn about.

2nd Grade Printables

• HUGE Ocean Animals for Kids Unit
• Animals and Hibernation Worksheet
• Endangered Animals Worksheet
• Zoo Field Trip Worksheets
• Free Printable Animal Report Template
• Cut and Paste Animal Classification Worksheet
• Bat Life Cycle Worksheets or see all our life cycle worksheets
• Free Habitat Game for 2nd Grade
• Color Changing Flowers Science Experiment
• Lots of Printables and activities to learn about Countries for Kids
• We have almost 50 individual country studies for kids like this Colombia for Kids
• Fun, hands-on History Lessons for kids
• FREE Printable World Map for Kids
• Over 1+ million pages of Free Printable Worksheets