Dinosaurs for kids

What's here

Eleven dinosaurs (okay, ten dinosaurs and one flying reptile) that stomp, roar, and swing their tails when tapped. Each one animates, makes a sound, and comes with a fact that's actually true, not dinosaur-shaped filler. Yes, the velociraptor has feathers, because the real one did.

Dinosaur names are long, which sounds like a problem and isn't. Toddlers who can't say "breakfast" will happily attempt "brachiosaurus," and the attempt is the point.

Meet these first

• Tyrannosaurus Rex. A bite that could crush a car, and arms so tiny it couldn't touch its own mouth. Kids find this hilarious.
• Triceratops. A skull the size of a small car, tipped with three sharp horns you can count together.
• Stegosaurus. The size of a bus with a brain the size of a walnut, and its spiky tail has a real name: the thagomizer.
• Brachiosaurus. Held its head four stories high to browse treetops. The longest neck in the room.
• Velociraptor. Actually only the size of a turkey and covered in feathers. The movie version was a bigger cousin.
• Parasaurolophus. That curved crest is a hollow tube it could honk through like a trumpet. Honk along.
• Ankylosaurus. A living tank, armored right down to its eyelids, with a club tail.
• Pteranodon. A wingspan wider than a small plane, yet lighter than your toddler.

Spinosaurus, diplodocus, and pachycephalosaurus are waiting once these eight are old friends.

How to play (60 seconds)

Ask your toddler to find the one with the longest neck, then the one with three horns, then the one with wings. That's a hunting game and it works from about 18 months. For talkers, break the big names into syllables and clap them out: "try-SER-a-tops." Don't correct their version; "serry-tops" counts. Finish by honking like a parasaurolophus together, because someone in the room has been waiting to do that.

Good to know

Long dinosaur names are surprisingly good vocabulary fuel. Multi-syllable words give toddlers practice stringing sounds together, and because they picked the word themselves, they'll repeat it far more than anything you assign. You'll hear "roar" and "stomp" first, then the names arrive in pieces.

Keep exploring

Grab the free first-words cards and 50-word checklist from the printables page for the quieter, screen-free version of the same word practice.

If big and toothy is the appeal, sharks is the obvious next stop. Zoo animals has today's giants, ocean animals has a whale bigger than any dinosaur ever was, and bugs scratches the same weird-creature itch at a smaller scale. The homepage has the full map.