Facts and Activities about Dinosaurs (Free Spanish Lessons for Kids)

Did you know that dinosaurs lived for around 170 million years? We, as mankind, have only lived for 200,000 years, according to PreparaNiños 

Learning about dinosaurs is super fun for kids! Dinosaurs are a great topic to introduce in your Spanish class to get your students excited by language learning.

If you’d like to know how to incorporate this topic to your Spanish class, or simply teach it to your kid as a new topic to expand their vocabulary, keep scrolling and find some songs, books and activities to talk about dinosaurs in Spanish!

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Introducing Dinosaurs in Spanish Class

First of all, how do you say “dinosaur” in Spanish? 

El dinosaurio.  

Introducing famous types of dinosaurs alongside their picture will excite your students about the topic. Here are 20 of the most famous types of dinosaurs, the dinosaurs’ names, and  their translations into Spanish!

DID YOU KNOW? Velociraptor means “fast thief,” according to Muy Interesante. The prefix veloci- means fast (like veloz in Spanish) and the suffix –raptor means “thief” (like raptar in Spanish, which means “to kidnap”).

Informative Sentences in Spanish

Get your student daydreaming about dinosaurs, how they looked, and what they were like. Along with some informative sentences, you can teach the usage of the past tenses (preterite and imperfect).

Learn more: Preterite vs Imperfect: A Beginner’s Guide to the Past Tense in Spanish

Los dinosaurios vivieron hace muchísimo tiempo.
Dinosaurs lived a very long time ago.

El pterodáctilo es un tipo de ave prehistórica.
The pterodactyl is a prehistoric type of bird. 

El tiranosaurio rex era el más temido de todos los dinosaurios.
The T-Rex was the most feared of all dinosaurs.

El tiranosaurio rex era carnívoro; sólo comía carne.
The T-rex was a carnivore; he only ate meat.

El brontosaurio era herbívoro; sólo comía hierbas.
The brontosaurus was a herbivore; he only ate herbs.

Extra Terms to Talk About Dinosaurs in Spanish

Down here I provide some extra words related to dinosaurs which are not dinosaurs themselves but will surely come in handy when talking about dinosaurs in Spanish.

10 Fun Fact About Dinosaurs in Spanish

Sharing fun facts is great because it can make your students learn more and remember better. Next up there are 10 awesome fun facts (courtesy of PreparaNiños as well) about dinosaurs to share with your students at home. Surely, these will leave them amazed!

1. Los dinosaurios no están completamente extintos, hoy los llamamos pájaros. (Los pájaros son dinosaurios).
   Dinosaurs aren’t fully extinct, but nowadays we call them birds! (Birds are dinosaurs).
2. Los dinosaurios vivieron entre 250 y 65 millones de años atrás.
   Dinosaurs lived between 250 and 65 million years ago.
3. Había dinosaurios pequeños también. El compsognathus era del tamaño de una gallina.
   There were small dinosaurs too. The Compsognathus was the size of a hen.
4. La palabra “dinosaurio” significa “lagarto terrible”.
   The word dinosaur means “terrible lizard”.
5. El estudio de los dinosaurios se llama “paleontología”.
   The study of dinosaurs is called “paleontology”.
6. Casi todo nuestro conocimiento de dinosaurios viene de los fósiles.
   Almost all of our knowledge about dinosaurs comes from fossils.
7. El tiranosaurio rex pudo haber tenido plumas.
   The T-Rex could have had feathers.
8. Hemos encontrado fósiles en todos los continentes.
   We have found fossils in every continent.
9. Las gallinas son descendientes de los dinosaurios.
   Hens are descendants of dinosaurs.
10. Algunos dinosaurios vivían en manada.
    Some dinosaurs lived in a herd.

Activities About Dinosaurs in Spanish

The best part of every lesson is watching your students participate in fun and interactive activities that stimulate their comprehension and curiosity. Here are some fun activities to do in relation to dinosaurs in Spanish!

1. Flashcards

Share some flashcards with your students! Show them the painting or impression of the dinosaur, say the name, and ask them to repeat it with you. Then again, if you feel like making it a little bit more complex, ask them to give you a characteristic of such a dinosaur.

Another thing you can do is to play concentration (memoria in Spanish). Get two pairs of flashcards with dinosaurs on them. Flip them and ask your kids to flip them one by one, until they remember where is which. The kid with more flashcards at the end wins the game!

Put your flashcards in a circle, and a bottle in the middle. Spin it and when it stops, ask a student which dinosaur is it (¿Qué dinosaurio es ese?) if they answer correctly they get to spin the bottle next.

If none of these options convince you, use these adjectives and noun modifiers to create fun sentences such as the ones below. Uncommon sentences can be remembered easily exactly because they are uncommon:

2. Practice Superlatives with Questions

Inspire your students to discuss their ideas about dinosaurs in Spanish while teaching and reinforcing the usage of superlatives. Ask questions such as:

¿Cuál era el mejor dinosaurio de todos?
Which one was the best dinosaur of them all?

¿Cuál era el dinosaurio más grande?
Which was the biggest dinosaur?

¿Cuál era el dinosaurio más veloz?
Which was the fastest dinosaur?

¿Cuál era el dinosaurio más pequeño?
Which was the smallest dinosaur?

The formula is: ¿Cuál es (era) el (la) [noun] más [adjective]? 

Explore more FREE SPANISH LESSONS FOR KIDS! ➡️
Enjoy over 70 unique lessons + free activity packets to download.

3. True or False

A classic session of true or false is great to test if your students paid attention. Kids love learning fun facts about dinosaurs and putting their knowledge to the test will make them feel accomplished and entertained. Ask things like:

-El tiranosaurio rex era omnívoro.
-Falso.

-The T-Rex was an omnivore.
-False

-El brontosaurio era herbívoro.
-Verdadero.

-Brontosaurus was a herbivore.
-True.

4. Pictionary with Dinosaurs in Spanish

Ask your students to draw a determined dinosaur. You can use the downloadable flashcards!

As the student is drawing, the others have to guess which dinosaur it is. This will be especially fun because they are usually hard to draw, so prepare to laugh. Whether you’re teaching in a regular classroom or Zoom, this will work out just fine!

5.  Hangman with Dinosaurs

After learning some names of the Dinosaurs in Spanish, you can start off with this classic activity. Whether you are back in a classroom or still teaching in Zoom, this activity is super easy and fun to do. 

Hangman is a guessing activity in which you choose a word and have the students guess the letters until they can decipher what it says. The fun part is, every time someone guesses the wrong word, you add one more element to the stick figure. If the body of the stick figure is complete, then it’s game over.

It’s a fun activity because it creates anticipation and kids will be excited to guess the words. You can choose a dinosaur name as the word they have to guess. If you feel it’s too difficult to leave your students to simply guess, give them some clues. You can say this like:

¡Este dinosaurio era el más peligroso de todos! (Tiranosaurio Rex)
This was the most dangerous dinosaur of all. (T-Rex)

Este dinosaurio era muy veloz. (Velociraptor)
This was the fastest dinosaur of all..(Velociraptor)

Este dinosaurio era como un rinoceronte. (Triceratops)
This dinosaur was like a rhinoceros. (Triceratops)

Este dinosaurio podía volar. (Pterodáctilo)
This dinosaur could fly. (Pterodactyl)

Songs about Dinosaurs in Spanish

Music is simply amazing to learn languages. It teaches you (or your students) a ton of different words: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, expressions, and sometimes even some slang words. If the song is good enough, you can start trying to sing along to it, learning Spanish in a very natural way! Check out these songs about dinosaurs in Spanish!

Los Dinosaurios by Doremila:

This is a great song with a kind of rocky tune that talks about dinosaurs in Spanish. It teaches a lot of adjectives such as:

• Pequeños (small)
• Alto (high)
• Grandes (big)
• Fieros (fierce)

Somos Dinosaurios by Little Angel Español

This dinosaur song in Spanish teaches your students about the different dinosaurs that there are in Spanish. The video is quite colorful so it can be good for little kids to watch it. It also teaches some great and useful verbs like:

• Rugir (to growl or to roar)
• Comer (to eat)
• Volar (to fly)
• Ser (to be)
• Hacer (to do or to make)
• Tener (to have)
• Usar (to use)
• Gustar (to like)
• Morder (to bite)

El Rock del Dinosaurio by TiRoRiRo

This song is awesome because it has a catchy tune. It describes the dinosaur first and then, after they ask ¿Quién soy? (Who am I?). The kids can participate by giving the name of the dinosaur, just like in the song!

If you listen closely you can spot a Spanish accent. This can be useful to expose your students to different kinds of accents in Spanish while teaching them about dinosaurs.

¡No me comas! by HowdyToons

Another rocky and bluesy song to add to our list. This one talks about a battle between the T-Rex, triceratops, stegosaurus and ankylosaurus. While the song is four minutes long, the animated video will help your students pay attention to what is happening.

Books about Dinosaurs in Spanish:

If you want your kid or student to reinforce their vocabulary on dinosaurs, or simply use different resources outside of the classroom, these five dinosaur books in Spanish might come in handy!

El dinosaurio Rexy y su bicicleta nueva by Ellie J. Woods

In this book you can find a story for kids which talks about a dinosaur who liked his bicycle but didn’t want to share it. In the end, he shares it with his friend and both have a lot of fun because of this. 

Dinosaurs: cuento para dormir by Rubén Darío Cárdenas Ceballos

This is a book that is perfect for bed-time stories in Spanish. It tells the story of Pepe the dinosaur, who goes on an adventure to get Pepina’s favorite flowers before his first child is born.

Bebé dinosaurio by Various Authors

This is a book with dinosaur sounds. While it’s designed for very little kids you can use it well with older students since it contains very simple and comprehensible questions that they can read in Spanish.

El mundo de los dinosaurios by Consuelo Delgado

This book is for 8 year olds, and it is a little bit more complex than the previous ones. This one uses longer sentences to talk about dinosaurs, so it can be a good challenge to share with a more advanced class!

Los dinosaurios (mundo maravilloso) by Delphine Badreddine

This is another complex book. It also teaches about dinosaurs in Spanish, the species, what they ate, how big they were, and more.

Let Your Kid Practice Spanish!

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Javier Grazioso

Freelance Writer at Homeschool Spanish Academy

Italo-Guatemalan, born and raised in Guatemala City, where I got a B.A. in Communication and Journalism. Currently, I'm living in Spain where I'm studying for a master's degree. I'm a language and travel enthusiast who speaks Spanish, English, Italian, and a bit of Hungarian. I love watching sports, practicing boxing, writing, and gaming.

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