Make 12 different paper plate dinosaur crafts with this set of printable templates including the diplodocus, triceratops, brachiosaurus and more.

You guys have shown us that you love to make dinosaurs – and why wouldn’t you? They are fascinating, prehistoric monsters that were actually REAL once upon a time.

Well, today we’ve revisited the paper plate dinosaurs originally created years ago when my girls were preschoolers and have improved and extended the project.

There are now 12 different dinosaur species that you can make from a paper plate included in one downloadable ebook.

This time they are a little more environmentally friendly too. Gone is the glitter and plastic googly eyes and in its place we’ve decorated the dinosaurs with assorted stamped designs and have included a printable sheet of paper “googly eyes” instead. Let’s keep the planet going another hundred million years by helping in any small way we can!

Get your full copy of the Ebook here.

Each dinosaur includes a photographed finished example and a “fact file” so kids can learn about them whilst they craft.

All of the favourite dinosaurs are included, like Diplodocus, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Anklyosaurus, Velociraptor, Brachiosaurus, Pterodactyl and of course, the T-Rex. Plus more! (we couldn’t forget the Parasauralophus.)

Here are a a few fun Dinosaur facts:

Did you know the Stegosaurus grew up to 12m long (around the length of a bus) – but only had a brain the size of a lime?
The enormous Sauropod, the Diplodocus, likely used it’s whip-like tail to make a VERY loud noise, possibly in courtship to female dinosaurs or to scare away predators
The T-Rex had arms so short they couldn’t reach his mouth
The Velociraptor, popularised by Hollywood’s Jurassic Park Movie, was actually only the size of a large turkey. It also was likely to have been a warm-blooded animal with feathers. Mind you, it still would have been one ferocious carnivore!

Aren’t they incredible creatures?

To get you started with your dinosaur crafting, we’re giving away the Diplodocus template for free. Enter your email address in the box provided to get the free Diplodocus template delivered to your inbox along with a page of printable eyes and the Diplodocus Fact file.

Let’s make it!

How to make a paper plate dinosaur

You will need:

23cm/9″ paper plates
Acrylic paint
Coloured card stock
Glue stick
Brushes and optional kitchen sponge for shape stamping
The printable diplodocus template

How to:

Cut your paper plate in half. Paint it and allow to dry.

Print the diplodocus template onto a sheet of coloured card stock in the same (or a similar) colour to your paper plate.

Cut the diplodocus shapes out and glue to the back of the paper plate.

Use a piece of kitchen sponge cut into a shape to decorate the dinosaur (I’ve used an irregular oval shape).

Glue a paper eye into place and use a marker to draw a mouth.

You’re done!

Decorating the dinosaurs

You can vary the sponge shapes and techniques to create different effects on your dinosaurs. For this velociraptor I’ve cut a sponge into a long, skinny triangle to give it stripes.

For the paper plate pterodactyl (or pterodactylus, as it’s more technically called), I’ve used a small sponge shape to paint streaks out from the centre of the plate to make it look more like wings.

For the “body” in the centre of the plate I’ve used a dabbing technique with the same piece of sponge to create a different texture to the rest of the plate.

This Utahraptor has had yarn glued to the plate to look like the feathers it was likely to have had.

Use a Q-tip/cotton bud to create a spotted pattern like I’ve done on this Parasauralophus.

Some dinosaurs had lots of very sharp teeth!

It’s easy to recreate the sharp teeth by folding a small mouth-sized piece of white paper in half and then cutting tiny zig zags along the fold line.

Unfold the small piece of paper to reveal a set of sharp dinosaur chompers.

Glue these to the back of the heads which have an open mouth for teeth, trimming to size if necessary. Younger kids may not have the fine motor skills to cut the fine zig zag shapes so this step is optional – or an adult could help them with it.

And that’s about all there is to it!

I’ve created some paper cut backgrounds for the dinosaurs to live in, which is an optional extra. There are a few tips on doing this in the Ebook if you’d like to make one too but your dinosaurs will look fabulous hanging on the wall as is!

Also available in our TPT store.

12 paper plate dinosaur crafts for kids

Here are a a few fun Dinosaur facts: