Create a special dinosaur theme birthday party for your child. Ideas for dinosaur themed party invitations, decorations, food, games, costumes and prizes.

Boys (and girls!) will have a romping-stomping great time at this birthday party, and there are games and activities to suit every age group.

Dinosaur Theme Invitation Ideas

There are lots of great ways to make fun dinosaur invitations. Here are a few to get you started.

• Purchase a cheap dinosaur skeleton from an emporium type store, and write a different piece of information on each piece. Post all the pieces to your guest, and have them make up the model to reveal the invitation.
• Age a piece of paper with watered down coffee, and burn a little bit around the edges for extra effect. Make up an archaeological code (think Indiana Jones), and use it to write your invitation. You might like to add some code-breaker tips, just in case. If you can, hand deliver it rolled up and tied with a piece of string.
• Cut a card into the shape of a dinosaur and write the invitation on the back. Think wild colours, and lots of spots and spikes.

Dinosaur Theme Decorations

• Make a time machine out of bits and pieces around the house. Use big boxes, tin foil, and vacuum cleaner pipes to make it look really exciting. Park the machine at your front gate, and before the party starts make every child travel back in time to the Jurassic era.
• Use black polythene, black building paper, or black fabric to turn your front door into the entrance of a cave. Add a couple of big rocks and some pot plants to each side, and string cotton wool around the edges to make cobwebs.
• Fill your house with pot plants, fern leaves, and broken branches. Hang ropes from the ceiling to look like vines, and add the odd soft toy animal hiding in the trees. Welcome to the jungle!
• Cut out giant dinosaur footprints and have them leading up the path to your house.

Dinosaur Theme Games and Activities

• Instead of a traditional treasure hunt, prepare an archaeological dig in your sand pit. Bury all sorts of dinosaur themed treasures or rough cut crystals, and give each child a mini tool kit to use during their exploration.You could also make it a ‘hunt for bones’. Buy a bag of bones a week or so earlier, and boil them up until they are well cooked. Once cool, spray paint them white and write a number on each. Each number will relate to a certain prize bag on party day.
• Give each child a piece of air dry clay and let them create their own Jurassic fossils. Simply roll the piece of clay out flat, then press in leaves, shells, feathers, and other natural treasures. When the items are removed, they leave an imprint just like a real fossil.As the name suggests, air dry clay does not need firing, it simply dries hard. You can purchase air dry clay from good craft stores for about $13 per kilo.
• Children can definitely relate volcanoes to dinosaur times, so why not make an exploding volcano in your sandpit. (If you don’t have a sand pit, get an old baby bath and fill it with sand). Have the children build the volcano, then push a yoghurt container into the peak. When everyone’s ready, put a tablespoon of baking soda into the yoghurt pot, then pour on some vinegar. For extra effect, add a few drops of red food colouring to the vinegar before you pour. Children love watching it “explode”, and it will work over and over. Make sure everyone gets a turn at creating the explosion.

• Have a table with paper plates, crayons, scissors, string and tape, and have every child make their own dinosaur mask when they arrive.

Dinosaur Theme Party Food

• Make old fashioned scotch eggs and pass them off as dinosaur eggs. Make up a sausage meat mixture with herbs and tomato sauce, then wrap a good layer around a hard boiled egg. Fry the dinosaur egg in hot oil, or simply cook in the microwave for 2 minutes each.To really capture the dinosaur theme, add a few drops of green food colouring to the sausage mixture. It won’t change the taste, but they will look great!
• Make a great looking vegetable dinosaur, with lots of snack bits the children can pull off and eat. Start with a long cucumber, and cut a pointed spine into the back. Use toothpicks to attach pieces of cheese, celery, cherry tomatoes, and salami chunks, and turn an everyday cucumber into a Jurassic Monster.

• Children can definitely relate cave men to dinosaur times, and what did cave men eat……bones! Cook up a plate Pork Spare Ribs or Lamb Shanks and let your guests be cave men, (for a little while at least!).

• Not all dinosaurs were vicious meat eaters, in fact some lived on just leaves and berries. Make up your own ‘herbivore’ mix with mint leave lollies and jaffas for berries.

Dinosaur Theme Costumes

• Costumes for a dinosaur party don’t have to be dinosaurs. You can easily make a cave man costume out of an old sheet, or an archaeologist outfit with khaki shorts, pretend camera, and a magnifying glass.
• A dinosaur costume can be as wild as you like. Start with a basic track suit, and stitch or staple on strips of corrugated card or the bumps from an egg carton. Paint the cardboard attachments to look like slimy scales and add strips of wool or ribbon if you like.Make dinosaur claws by cutting toes into foam kneepads. (The ones you can get from the gardening or DIY section at the hardware store). Slide the knee pads over your child’s shoes and hold them in place using the elastic band attached. You can do the same thing for hands if you like.A dinosaur tail can be made by stuffing a stocking with newspaper and attaching it to the back of the trousers. Keep it plain, or paint it up and add egg carton scales for extra effect.

Dinosaur Theme Prizes and Loot Bags

• Give each child an archaeological kit to take home. It could include things like mini gardening tools, a magnifying glass, a pastry brush (to dust away the dirt), and a notebook and pen to record their findings.
• Visit your local gem shop and purchase some rough cut minerals. You can usually buy some interesting pieces for as little as 50c. These rocks may not be quite as old as the dinosaurs, but they are old. Who knows, you may even spark a child’s interest in rock collecting.
• Look for cheap dinosaur themed prizes like stickers, stamps, rubbers and magnets.