DIY Summer Camp: Dinosaur Week

Enjoy fun crafts and hands-on learning fun featuring your favorite prehistoric creatures at summer camp dinosaur week.

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Turn summer at home into a fun DIY summer camp with our dinosaur week ideas. Below we’ve put together a simple plan that’s full of indoor and outdoor fun, plus suggestions for snacks, books, and more.

Our Backyard Summer Camp ideas are created for kids ages 5 to 12 and easy to customize for your family’s schedule.

Summer camp planning tips

Use our simple system to plan a summer-camp style staycation for your kids! It’s easy to organize a day, a week, or a whole summer of indoor and outdoor play ideas, easy crafts, and fun hands-on learning.

Dinosaur week lesson plan

Indoor activities

1. Make a paper bag tyrannosaurus
2. Turn a paper plate into a stegosaurus
3. Use straws to make exploding volcano art
4. Craft your own cute pony bead dino keychain
5. Make a tiny terrarium for plastic creatures

Outdoor activities

1. Dig for toys or fossils in a sensory bin
2. Build a volcano using lemon juice
3. Try some dinosaur yoga poses
4. Create a dinosaur garden in a planter

Family activity

Do you know what your neighborhood looked like a few million years ago? Research which prehistoric creatures lived where your home is now. Then read a book or watch a movie that includes them!

Themed snack ideas

• Make a dirt cup by layering chocolate pudding and crushed cookies; add a few dinosaur fruit snacks on top.
• Dino chicken nuggets with your kids’ favorite dipping sauces
• Toss together a mix of dinosaur bones (pretzel sticks) and claws (Bugles)

Books, movies, and videos

Browse our roundup of 20 Dinosaur Books for Kids.

Watch The Land Before Time or The Good Dinosaur.

The Nat Geo Kids YouTube channel has a playlist/series called Dinosaur Road Trip. See all our favorite educational YouTube channels.

Field trip suggestions

Field trip options will depend on what’s local to you. Here are some places to look for:

• Science or natural history museum
• Dry riverbed to look for fossils
• Zoo — to see birds, reptiles, and other dinosaur cousins

More fun ideas from Backyard Summer Camp:

• 16 Dinosaur Games for Kids
• 3-Ingredient Salt Dough Recipe
• 15 Dinosaur Printables for Kids