Frozen Dinosaur Excavation

This fun dinosaur ice egg excavation activity is perfect for your little palaeontologists-in-training. It combines the wonders of dinosaurs (and who doesn’t like dinosaurs) with discovery and science. Make some frozen fossils eggs and then watch as your kids excavate their dinosaurs from the eggs. So here you go our Frozen Dinosaur Excavation Activity for kids.

Dinosaur Ice Egg Excavation Activity

Dinosaurs have always been a favourite theme for my kids and their friends and this simple activity that takes just a little preparation from you is ideal for us within your home, garden or in your setting.

Excavating the eggs help to develop your little ones fine motor skills, they learn a little bit of Chemistry and you and they can learn much more about the fascinating prehistoric dinosaurs.

Read Next: Dinosaur Activities for Kids

Materials Needed for your frozen dinosaur Excavation

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• Water balloons
• Small toy dinosaurs
• Pippette or similar
• Small excavation tools suitable for children (e.g. little hammers, brushes and even a small spray bottle
• Water

How to Make your Ice Eggs

1. Open the balloon and place your small toy dinosaur inside it.

2. Then fill with water.

3. Place the egg in the freezer and allow at least 4 to 5 hours (overnight is better) for the eggs to freeze.

Optional idea use food colouring or liquid water colours to conceal the dinosaurs within the ice. Dark purple and black seem to work the best.

Dinosaur Ice Fossil Excavation

Set up your fossil excavation area ready for your children, take care as, especially if indoors, this activity does get a little wet!I kept a set of towels to the side when I’ve carried this activity out inside but much prefer to do it in the garden.

Then hand over the tools and watch they discover the dinosaurs within the ice eggs. Remember to supervise especially with sharp tools.

It can take a little time especially with really well frozen eggs so encourage your little ones to be patient as they watch the dinosaurs become exposed – remind them it’s just like real palaeologists, they can’t go quick as they would damage some of the dinosaur bones.

Read Next: Dinosaur Fossil Dig

As they discover the dinosaurs within the eggs it’s an ideal time to talk about the dinosaurs, what are they called, how would they have moved and what would they have eaten are just some of the things that you could learn about.

Also take a moment to talk about the changes in the states of matter from ice to water – it’s melting an important concept that kids will develop further over time and revisit time and time again in science.

Recommended Reading

We love to pair activities with books and have a fantastic selection of books for both little kids and bigger kids as this activity is great for a wide range of ages.

Digging Up Dinosaurs

When my kids were younger I liked to pair this activity with any of our favourite dinosaur books (you can find out our recommendations of dinosaur books for toddlers and preschoolers) or specifically if we were looking at Palaeontologists then this book Digging Up Dinosaurs by Aliki which is a non-fiction book that you can read together all about the work of palaeontologists and dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs Before Dark

With slightly older kids I like combining this activity with reading through the first of the Magic Tree House books Dinosaurs Before Dark. This series is one of my favourites for my emergent readers and we have loved reading and creating activities around the themes of the books. In Dinosaurs Before Dark, we meet the two main characters for the first time Jack and Annie as they go on their first adventure to prehistoric times.

If you would like to do similar – read the Magic Tree House Books together with your kids and do simple, easy and fun activities around the themes then why not subscribe to our newsletter and get ideas straight to your inbox for each of the books.

Read Next: Dinosaur Books for Big Kids

More Dinosaur Activities for Kids

Why not check out some of these other dinosaur activities for kids below

• Make your own cast fossils (Big Kids)
• Create a Dinosaur Timeline (Big Kids)
• Make dinosaur feet to stomp around in (Toddlers and Preschoolers)
• Make dinosaur fossils from salt dough (all ages)