Dinosaur Games for Kids: Dinosaur Dig
Getting your game ready…
- Ages
- 5–10
- School years
- Kindergarten–4th Grade
- Skills
- Adding and taking away, from number facts within 10 to three-digit numbers, Times tables and division facts, How fossils are found and how scientists rebuild skeletons
- Time
- 8 minutes a dig
- Cost
- Free, no sign-up
- Updated
For grown-upsDinosaur Dig is a free dinosaur game that mixes science and math. Children answer math questions to power their digging tools, brush away the rock to uncover fossil bones, put the skeleton back together like a puzzle, and then meet the animal they found, with a fact card about when it lived, what it ate and how big it was.
How to play Dinosaur Dig
- Choose a level and press Play. Each dig hides the bones of one prehistoric animal somewhere in the rock.
- Pick a tool: the brush, the trowel or the big pick. Answer its math question to give it power. Harder questions power bigger tools that clear more rock at once.
- Tap or drag across the rock to dig. Look for bits of bone poking out! With a keyboard, use the arrow keys to move and Space to dig, and press 1, 2 or 3 to choose a tool.
- When every bone is uncovered, build the skeleton: tap a bone, then tap the place it fits (or drag it there).
- Read the fact card about your animal, then answer the quiz questions about its diet, when it lived, its size and whether it was really a dinosaur. Every animal you find goes into your museum.
What your child learns
- Adding and taking away, from number facts within 10 to three-digit numbers
- Times tables and division facts
- How fossils are found and how scientists rebuild skeletons
- The Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods
- Herbivores, carnivores and omnivores
- Comparing sizes and lengths in meters
- Why pterosaurs and sea reptiles were not dinosaurs
About Dinosaur Dig
Children love dinosaurs, and that love is a great way into real science. Dinosaur Dig has 18 prehistoric animals to find, from Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops and Stegosaurus to Archaeopteryx, the feathered dinosaur that shows birds are dinosaurs too. Three of them are not dinosaurs at all: Pteranodon was a flying reptile called a pterosaur, and Plesiosaurus and Mosasaurus were sea reptiles. Spotting the difference is one of the best lessons in the game, because dinosaurs lived on land and stood with their legs straight underneath their bodies.
Every fact card gives the name and how to say it, what the name means, the period it lived in, its diet, its length in meters compared with a school bus and a child, and where its fossils have been found. Scientists keep finding new fossils, so the cards use careful words like about and probably, based on museum and university sources. The math that powers the tools matches the level: Junior digger for Kindergarten to 1st Grade uses number facts within 10 and 20, Fossil hunter for Grades 1–2 adds tens, doubles and the 2, 5 and 10 times tables, and Expert digger for Grades 3–4 uses two and three-digit numbers, times tables and division. There is no timer, so children can take their time with every question.
| School year | Suggested level |
|---|---|
| Kindergarten | Junior digger: adding and taking away within 10 |
| 1st Grade | Junior digger and Fossil hunter: number facts to 20 |
| 2nd Grade | Fossil hunter: adding and taking away tens, doubles, and the 2, 5 and 10 times tables |
| 3rd Grade | Expert digger: two-digit adding and taking away, and times tables |
| 4th Grade | Expert digger: times tables to 12 × 12, division and three-digit numbers |
Move up a level after getting three stars two or three times in a row.
Leaderboard
Full leaderboardPlay a round to get on the board! Create a free account to save your scores.
Frequently asked questions
Was Pteranodon a dinosaur?
No. Pteranodon was a pterosaur, a flying reptile. Pterosaurs were close cousins of the dinosaurs and lived at the same time, but they were a different group. Plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs and mosasaurs, the great sea reptiles, were not dinosaurs either.
Are birds dinosaurs?
Yes. Scientists agree that birds are living dinosaurs. They come from small feathered meat-eating dinosaurs. Archaeopteryx, which lived about 150 million years ago, had feathers and wings like a bird but also teeth and a long bony tail.
What are the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous?
They are the three periods of the Mesozoic Era, the age of dinosaurs. The Triassic was about 252 to 201 million years ago, when the first dinosaurs appeared. The Jurassic was about 201 to 145 million years ago, the time of giants like Diplodocus and Stegosaurus. The Cretaceous was about 145 to 66 million years ago and ended when an asteroid hit the Earth.
What is the difference between a herbivore, a carnivore and an omnivore?
A herbivore eats plants, a carnivore eats meat (including fish), and an omnivore eats both. Triceratops was a herbivore, T. rex was a carnivore, and Gallimimus was probably an omnivore.
How long was Tyrannosaurus rex?
T. rex was about 12 meters long, about as long as a school bus, and lived about 68 to 66 million years ago in western North America.
Is the museum saved?
Yes. Every animal you discover is saved in your museum on this device, so you can visit it and read the fact cards again at any time. Nothing is sent anywhere.
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