A Fun & Simple Dinosaur Excavation Site for Kids

For all those dinosaur fans, what could be more fun than digging up a few dino bones or finding some fossils! Well, while most of us won’t be able to make it out to an actual fossil site anytime soon, you could create this super easy excavation site for imaginative play, lesson activities, or party games! Read on to check out our set up and some other alternative ideas.

THE SUPPLIES

Aside from the dinosaur figurines or eggs, you could reuse or upcycle other items around the house – cardboard boxes or shredded grocery bags work great to give this “excavation” site an earth-tone feel.

Plastic Dinosaurs or Dinosaur Eggs
Large Cardboard Box
Shredded Paper

THE DINOSAURS

An excavation isn’t complete without some treasured dinos to unearth. While you can always create some DIY dinosaur eggs (This one from makelifelovely.com looked really easy: How to Make Dinosaur Eggs (With a Hidden Surprise Inside), we ended up purchasing a kit to save a bit of time. This Dig it Up Dinosaur Skeletons came with 12 skeleton dinosaurs and were fairly easy to chisel away after we followed the instructions. If you’re still pressed for time and/or can’t purchase a kit, miniature plastic dinosaurs wrapped in brown paper (upcycled from brown paper bags) would be a simple & easy way to hide the dinos!

THE EXCAVATION SITE

If you’ve got the space or a small kiddie pool and can fill it up with sand, kids would LOVE digging up the dinosaurs in such a large space! Otherwise, you can upcycle a large cardboard box, fill it with some shredded brown paper (brown paper grocery bags work great), and you have an instant digging site! The larger the box and the more paper the better – otherwise, you can always have the kids take turns. We used this activity for a party and used wooden spoons for digging to make it more challenging, but you could also use mini plastic shovels.