Dino games

1. Cross the river-variation-15 mins

Materials: flashcards, dice, handouts/materials for the next activity/smthg for the students
to carry back across the river
-teacher arranges flashcards in the shape of a river
-students have to roll the dice; they have to name the card in front of them in order to get
permission to jump over it and cross the river (e.g. rolls six, they have to count to the
sixth card and name it)
-on the other side of the river, they have to get an object and take it back across the
river
-they name and jump over another card (either they roll again or they count the same
number of cards but from the other end)
- everyone gets a turn and another chance
2. Dino bingo-15 mins
Materials: bingo sheets, pencils
-teacher hands out the bingo sheets with different colour/size (big, large, huge, etc.,
depending on vocabulary from the story or prev activity) dinos
-asks the students to chose a certain number of dinos (6 or 8 or 12 of different colours or
shapes)
-teacher either randomly draws out of a hat or simply announces a colour/size
-first one to cross out all the dinos he/she selected wins
3. Dino puzzle 15 mins
Materials: pictures of dinos cut into pieces (hand, tail, foot etc.) with a written
explanation of what they are
-students go around and ask each other Do you need a dino tail, head, etc.?
-students have to group together to form the original dinosaur picture

-the group then has to make a presentation of their dinosaur in front of the others; each
student gets to say one sentence about the dino of their team
4. Who/what am I? 15 mins
-

each student gets to think of a character from the story (prev activity)

the others have to ask questions and guess which character it is by asking
questions about its appearance and habbits
5. Dinosaur lotto-15 mins

Materials: cardboard or piece of paper, coins or beans, cards

-Lotto is a game that is played like bingo, but pictures are used instead of numbers
Printing on card stock (heavy paper) works well. For a more durable game, glue the
printed pages to cardboard (like old cereal boxes) and then cut out the cards and boards.
The Rules: To play, you need to print out the deck of picture cards and at least one board
for each player. Each player will also need a dozen or so dried beans or pennies to mark
their board.
Each player gets a game board (which shows 16 pictures). Someone picks cards from the
deck (it can be the teacher, or the players can take turns picking a card), and if a player
has that picture on their board, they cover it with a penny or a dried bean. The winner is
the first person to cover 4 pictures in a row (horizontal, vertical or diagonal). The winner
calls out "Lotto!" or "Loteria!"
Print up all the cards, and as many boards as there are people playing.

6. The Jaws of a Tyrannosaurus Rex-15-20 mins

Materials: circle made out of paper or a ribbon, dino teeth made out of cardboard
http://www.everythingpreschool.com/themes/dinosaurs/games.htm
-Put a ten foot circle some where in your class. Hide large Dino teeth in different places
around the room before they get there. Have the children find the teeth and bring them
back to the circle. Tape the teeth around the circle. Explain to the children that the circle
is how wider the Tyrannosaurus Rex mouth was. Let them see how many of them can fit
in the jaw.
7. Name the Dino Tag- 5 mins
Submitted by India http://www.everythingpreschool.com/themes/dinosaurs/games.htm
Play it just like TV Tag. When a child is tagged, they must call out the name of a dinosaur
or go to the tar pit
8. Just How big were dinosaurs?-15 mins
Submitted by Mindyhttp: //www.everythingpreschool.com/themes/dinosaurs/science.htm
Make a people graph to find out. Have children measure out a dinosaur's length using
yardsticks. Stretch a string the length of the dinosaurs.
Get your class to lie head-to-toe along the measured area. Count How many children it
takes to make a dinosaurs length.
A second way to do this is by seeing how many of your children's footprints could fit into
a dinosaurs footprint.
9. Dino telephone- 5 mins
-teacher tells a child a dinosaur type and he has to whisper it in the next persons ear until
they reach the last person
Variation: have each end of the line start a message and have two different ones at the end
10. Like a dinosaur- 5 mins

-the children have to follow the teachers directions and: roar like a dinosaur, stomp
like a dinosaur, run like a dinosaur etc. and at the end sleep like a dinosaur
11. True or false?-10 mins
Materials: flashcards
-the classroom is divided in the true side and the false side
-students take turn standing in front of the class, holding up a picture and saying its
meaning (right or wrong) and the others have to run to either the true or false side
12. Vanishing dinosaur game- 5 mins
Materials: toy dinosaurs
-teacher puts a few toy dinosaurs on a table and asks the students how many there are,
how they each look etc.
-the students then turn around and the teacher removes a dinosaur
-the students then have to notice which dinosaur has vanished/ become exctinct

Alien games
1. Airplane competition/ spaceship variation-15-20 mins
Materials: cello tape, paper or cardboard, plastic, etc. spaceship
-after arts and crafts activity or requires the students to make a paper spaceship/airplane
before hand
-teacher makes a finish line out of cello tape at one end of the classroom and to parallel
lines, divided into sections (depending on the number of kids in the class) leading to it
from the other end of the classroom; divides the two lines into three areas- Earth, Space
and a planet from our solar system (or something related to the story)
-children are divided in two teams

-each member is asked one question and if he answers correctly he can move his teams
ship to the next section
-first team to reach the destination wins; played twice to get both teams to win; if one of
the kids gets one question wrong they get to answer another question
2. Alien basketball- 10 mins
Materials: a hoop/ trashcan filled with water, either a soft ball to use as a basketballpreferably one that floats or as many little balls as kids in two colours, a hat/bag,
flashcards with vocab to practice/consolidate
-kids are divided into teams; they have to draw a flashcard from the hat/bag, name it and
shoot into the hoop, if they score they get one/five points; if one student misses they have
the chance to draw another card and try again; teacher records their results in a chart on
the board
3. Blindfold Course- 10 mins
Materials: blindfolds, cards
-teacher divides the room into areas (the deck of the spaceship, etc. depending on the
story on the topic)
-students are divided into pairs; one student draws a note from a hat and gives directions
to the other student on how to get to the area written on the note
4. Mime- 10 mins
-students draw a piece of paper from a hat and have to mime a certain character from the
story
5. Colours in the air variation-5 mins
Materials: flashcards that have been used before for a different activity duplicated
-each student receives a number of cards (2 or 3 depending on the number of the cards
and students); they are walking around the classroom

-teacher names a flashcard and all those that have that flashcard have to group together
as quickly as possible in one end of the room in a certain area (the carpet for example)
-then they come back and start walking again