Printable dinosaur skeletons
Ideas for using the printable dinosaur skeletons
If you haven’t already got a plan for using these free PDF pages, here are some ideas that you might want to try.
1 – Dinosaur puzzles. You can cut out the bones on each page to create a picture puzzle that learners can later try to put back together. This can be done by cutting out sections or individual bones.
You can also cut them into a square or rectangle grid section like these picture mix-up puzzles. To do this simply draw a grid on the backside of the paper with a ruler and cut out the sections.
2 – Dinosaur pasta skeletons. Get learners to create 3D images by sticking pasta on top of the bones images to recreate and assemble them as a really fun craft activity. To do this you will need PVA glue and it is best done when the skeletons are printed on cardstock.
You can also substitute pasta for something else. Match sticks, skewers, or even sticks and twigs from your garden will also work well. Afterward, the skeletons can also be used to make imprints in soil or craft clay.
3 – Dinosaur collages. By using pieces of colored paper learners can dress the dinosaur skeleton printables. They can cut shapes that are suitable and glue them over the bones to create a colored dinosaur.
Students can also color their own paper instead of using pre-colored paper. They can even draw textures or use other things such as feathers to make this collage.
4 – Coloring pages. Some of these printables will work very well as coloring pages. Let children decide their own way on how these skeletons should be brought to life with pencils and crayons.
5 – Wall murals. The dinosaur skeleton templates can also be used to create interesting wall murals. Get students to cut them out and tape them to a wall in any arrangement that they like.
You might also find the free printable dinosaur footprints useful for this.
6 – Museum Dioramas. Buy using cardboard boxes these printables can be used to make a mini 3D museum. Note that when you print the PDF pages you can resize the images to make them smaller if you need.
7 – Dinosaur poster projects. The printable dinosaur bones can be stuck to poster projects that can be filled with information about these creatures. This makes for a very good research activity.
Below are triceratops skeletons, this creature’s name literally means three-horned face. They were thought to wander the planet until around 66 million years ago.
Next, we have some printable Stegosaurus skeletons. This plant-eating dinosaur is known for the plates on its back. A fascinating fact about this Jurassic animal is that it isn’t thought to have been very clever, it is thought to have a brain size about the same as a walnut.
The pterodactyl was the first flying dinosaur to be found and identified. They should more correctly be called pterodactyloids, fossils of them have been found in many different areas of the world including North America, Europe, and Asia.
The dinosaur skeleton printables below both feature creatures with large sail-like structures on their backs. On the left is a dimetrodon, and to the right is a spinosaurus.
Now we have some aquatic dinosaur bones templates. Left is a picture of a pliosaurus skeleton, they are thought to have averaged around 8 meters in length and weighed 5 metric tons. On the right is a liopleurodon, which was also a powerful swimmer that had 4 paddle-like limbs.
Below are brontosaurus skeleton outlines. This dinosaur whose name means thunder lizard, grew to around 20 meters in length.
Below left is a diplodocus dinosaur skeleton outline, along with a parasaurolophus beside it.
Last of all we have some Velociraptor skeleton printables. They were not very big animals, they stood at just over 2 meters or nearly 7 feet in height and weighed up to 20 kilograms or 43 pounds.
Further activities
You can find some more free related activities here at ESL Vault.
If you are teaching a class or child about dinosaurs, these free dinosaur flashcards will most definitely come in handy.
For children learning numbers and who enjoy coloring, try these free dinosaur dot-to-dot pages.
Finally, for another great craft activity, check out the dinosaur headband templates, which are of course 100% free as well!
