How to Make a Quick Dinosaur Activity: Ice Egg Excavation

Ice shaped eggs with colorful dinosaurs inside make this dinosaur activity a big hit for a birthday party.  The goal is to use the provided tools to chip away at the ice and/or speed up the melting process in order to get excavate and free the baby dinosaur inside the egg.  This was the first big hit of the birthday party. I set it up last, after a few guests arrived, so all the kids saw me put the eggs into the water table.  Of course that drew their attention.  Nearly every kid spent about the first 45 minutes, (possibly an hour) working on this dinosaur activity.  My husband got worried they would never see the other two activities because the kids were working on the ice eggs for so long. Get the scoop on how to set up this birthday activity below.

• Gather all the supplies you will need for this, including: small toy dinosaurs (about 2 inches in length), regular sized latex balloons (the regular sized latex balloons work better than water balloons for this), 2 to 4 turkey basters, 2 to 4 putty knives.
• Place a dinosaur toy into each balloon by stretching the mouth of the balloon and squeezing the toy inside. You may need to have someone help you with this process.  Then fill the balloon up with water until it is about the size of your open hand and about the shape of a nice oval egg.  Tie the balloon.  To fill with water, I used the small funnel that came with a bag of water balloons I had on hand.

• Making sure the balloons are dry on the outside, place them in a freezer bag and freeze overnight.  Depending on how many balloons you have, you may need to use multiple bags. It is important to put the balloons in the bags because if some of them pop when freezing, you don’t want the water to leak out all over your freezer.
• You can cut the latex off the balloons with scissors once they are all frozen.  You will need to work quickly and in batches as you do this because you don’t want the ice eggs to begin melting.  I cut about four off at a time. Put them right back in the freezer bag and right back into the freezer. Leave them there until you are ready for the party.

• I used our water table for this activity, but a clear, shallow bin works just as well.  Fill your table or bin with about an inch of water, transfer the eggs to the bin, and place the tools (basters and putty knives) inside.  
• I made a little sign with instructions for the kids.