The BEST Dinosaur Party with These Amazing Ideas

Host the best dinosaur party – Amazing ideas for Food, Favors, and Fun

As with every party, I plan around three ideas: Food, Favors, Fun (or activities).

Dinosaur Party Ideas for FOOD

The food for the dinosaur party was fun for me to plan, and relatively simple too.  The party was a morning brunch, so the menu consisted of a bit of savory and a lot of sweets.  Check out these dinosaur party ideas we did to feed our guests. Dinosaur Bagel Bites, braided pretzels with a Sweet Cream Cheese Spread, (aka: Bones and Plaster), Caramel Popcorn Snack Mix, (aka: Mosasaurus Mix), Water and Juice, and of course, Coffee.  For the labels, I used fun and textured card stock and my own “self-proclaimed” fancy handwriting to make the food tents.

Dinosaur Bagel Bites

1. Bagel halves with store-bought spread, or Spring Vegetable Spread. I cleaned up and washed our paper towel holder to stack the bagels.
2. I also wanted bagel sandwiches. You can have your guests make their own with a cheese spread, deli meats, and cheeses. However, I ordered our sandwiches from Noah’s Bagels.

Check out these cool favor ideas below!

Dinosaur Party Ideas for FAVORS

Let’s talk about some dinosaur party favor ideas. The favors for our dinosaur party were real fun, partly because they doubled over as an activity, and also because I was able to personalize them for each kid.  I used favor bags filled with Homemade Playdough, Salt Dough Fossils, a Made-by-Me Dinosaur Egg ready to break open, and of course dinosaur stickers and a lollipop.  To be sure the kids knew they were supposed to break the Dinosaur Egg, I wrapped each egg in a clear plastic gift bag and put a label on them stating, “Caution: Baby Dinosaur Inside”. Keep reading for the tutorial on how to make the Salt Dough Fossils and the Dinosaur Eggs.

Salt Dough Fossils-DIY Dinosaur Favor Party Ideas

Material Needed:

• Small plastic dinosaurs and/or small dinosaur skeletons
• Half to One and a Quarter cup warm water
• One cup salt
• 2 cups whole wheat flour

Directions:

1. Gather all the supplies you will need for this, including: small plastic dinosaurs and/or small dinosaur skeletons, ½-1 ¼ cup warm water, 1 cup salt, 2 cups whole wheat flour.
2. With a wooden spoon or mixer, mix flour, salt, and water together.  I started with ½ cup, and added water in ¼ cup increments until I got the consistency needed to make a nice ball of dough.
3. Then, make small balls of dough.  Using your palm, press ball to about ½ – ¼ inch thickness. Another option is you can roll out the dough and use round or oval shaped cookie cutters.
4. Press the dinosaur toys or skeletons into the dough.  If the toys and skeletons are small enough, you can press the entire toy into the dough.  Otherwise, you can just press the feet, tail, face, spine, etc.
5. Place the fossils on a baking sheet (I also used parchment paper), and bake at 250 degrees for about 2 hours, keeping an eye on them after the first hour.  I checked mine every 30 minutes.  They are done when they are dry and hard.

Dinosaur Eggs-Smashing Dinosaur Party Ideas

Materials Needed:

• Small toy dinosaurs (about 2 inches in length)
• 2 cups play sand
• 1 cup cornstarch
• Warm water

Directions:

1. Gather all the supplies you will need for this, including: small toy dinosaurs (about 2 inches in length), 2 cups sand, 1 cup cornstarch, warm water.
2. Using a mixing bowl, (I used my standing mixer), stir the sand and cornstarch.  Then, slowly add the water.  You will need just enough water so the dough comes together to create a texture similar to kinetic sand.  But be careful not to use too much water or your eggs will not hold their shape well.
3. Using your hands, scoop up some dough and place a dinosaur in the middle.  You can scoop up more dough as needed to form an egg about the size of your hand.  Make sure the dinosaur is not poking out of the dough.
4. Last, place the eggs on a parchment-lined sheet pan and set them in the sun to dry for a day.  Note that these eggs are delicate so handle them with care.

Dinosaur Party Ideas for FUN

This dinosaur party was the first party where the kids were old enough to NEED some activities, and yet the kids were young enough that I didn’t want the activities to be too structured around a time frame.  So while I decided to go big on the activities, I also allowed each kid to complete them in their own time during the party.  Here are some dinosaur party ideas we did. I planned three activities and am happy to say that all three were a big hit!  The activities I set up were: Ice Egg Excavation, Dinosaur Excavation Kit, Playdough Fossils using Homemade Playdough.

Play Dough Fossils-Creative Dinosaur Party Ideas

The Playdough Fossils activity was super simple to set up.  First, I made a large batch of Homemade Playdough in the desired color and I did it days in advance.  Then, on the day of the party, I simply set out a blanket with an oversized cutting board.  I laid the play dough on the cutting board with several dinosaur skeletons (the ones left over from the excavation kits), and several fun play dough tools like rollers and cutters.  Lastly, I added a sign with the instructions: Press the dinosaur skeletons into a small ball of play dough to create dinosaur fossils.  Of course the kids will very likely play with the play dough in other fun ways too, but having the skeletons there to use as tools will spark some imagination, at the very least.

The BEST Dinosaur Party with These Amazing Ideas