Today we are doing a dinosaur excavation! Kids of all ages will love breaking out a dinosaur from ice. It’s a fun sensory game that is also perfect for the summer. You could also add it to your dinosaur curriculum too or use it as a fun game to teach about the dinosaurs. You can do this dinosaur excavation activity at home or in the classroom.

Dinosaur Excavation

Any Dinosaur lovers out there!? My boys absolutely LOVE playing what we refer to as Dinosaur Breakout! It is a perfect simple activity for those HOT days when being outside means water must be involved in some way! Lately, we have been known to have dinosaurs in our freezer on a very regular basis!

We aren’t searching for fossils or dinosaur bones. No, our discoveries are actual dinosaurs! Or…dinosaur toys anyway. This also doubles as a great science lesson about fluids and solids as well as fine motor skills practice.

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Related: We have even more ice activities for kids.

Video: Dinosaur Excavation Game For Toddlers and Preschoolers

Materials Needed For This Dinosaur Excavation:

• Plastic dinosaurs
• Tupperware/plastic container
• Water
• Small hammer
• Food coloring (optional)

How To Create The Ice Block For The Dinosaur Activity

Step 1

Fill your plastic container with water (and food coloring-optional), then drop in your dinosaurs.

Step 2

Place it carefully in the freezer.

Step 3

When completely frozen, remove them from the freezer. Run warm (not hot) water over the container until the ice separates from the container.

Step 4

Head outside and gently remove your Dinosaur Ice.

How To Actually Do This Dinosaur Excavation Activity

Allow your children to use a small hammer to break away the ice to find all the dinosaurs. In our home, the dinosaurs immediately go back in the freezer and the whole activity repeats itself!

Dinosaur Activity Notes and Benefits

We love dinosaurs and educational activities. You can add this activity to your lesson plans and it doubles as sensory play. These dinosaur activities are good for others things too like:

• Great for Gross Motor Skills- This activity really teaches a child how to use their entire arm and swing a small, light weight hammer and strike an object.
• Great activity for a pre- or post reading activity when talking about/learning about dinosaurs. Our boys would highly recommend the ‘How Do Dinosaurs…” series by Jane Yolan.
• All around FUN activity for little ones to like to watch things break! This is one thing we can let them break and actually smile about!
• It’s also a good way to learn about different dinosaurs like the stegosaurus or triceratops.
• Your child can also learn about different dinosaurs like the omnivores, carnivores, and herbivores.
• They can learn about paleontology and what paleontologists do.

Change Up The Dinosaur Activity As Needed

Kids tired of the ice crafts? That’s fine, you could switch it up and even bury the dinosaurs in sand and let them use a paintbrush and small shovel to dig them out.

Dinosaur Activity For Toddlers And Preschoolers

Print

Let's dig out some dinosaurs from ice with this fun activity. Kids can play with ice which is a sensory activity, learn about dinosaurs, and even practice fine motor skills.

Materials

• Plastic dinosaurs
• Tupperware/plastic container
• Water
• Small hammer
• Food coloring (optional)

Instructions

1. Fill your plastic container with water (and food coloring-optional), then drop in your dinosaurs.
2. Place it carefully in the freezer.
3. When completely frozen, remove them from the freezer. Run warm (not hot) water over the container until the ice separates from the container.
4. Head outside and gently remove your Dinosaur Ice.
5. Allow your children to use a small hammer to break away the ice to find all the dinosaurs. In our home, the dinosaurs immediately go back in the freezer and the whole activity repeats itself!

More Dinosaur Fun From Kids Activities Blog

• Check out our Dinosaur coloring matching game!
• We have some awesome dinosaur printables.
• Have you seen our dinosaur fact pages?
• How cute are these dinosaur popsicle molds?
• These baby dinosaur coloring pages are adorable.
• We have a great tutorial to make an origami T-Rex.
• Rawr! Here is a huge list of dinosaur crafts and dinosaur activities.
• This is the cutest dinosaur coloring page.
• There are 36 fun preschool dinosaur art ideas and activities.
• Learn how to draw a dinosaur.
• Wow, learn about dinosaurs with this archaeopteryx coloring pages.
• We have the best apatosaurus dinosaur coloring pages.
• Relax with this zentangle dinosaur coloring page.
• Spinosaurus dinosaur coloring pages are so much fun.
• Color these velociraptor dinosaur coloring sheets.
• Don’t forget about these triceratops dinosaur coloring pages.
• Also, there are stegosaurus dinosaur coloring worksheets.
• As well as allosaurus dinosaur coloring pages.
• And we can’t forget about the brachiosaurus dinosaur coloring pages for kids.
• We also have dilophosaurus dinosaur coloring sheets.
• These dinosaur coloring pages are the cutest.

Did you free all the dinosaurs from the ice with this fun activity?