Dinosaur Birthday Coloring Page

This dinosaur birthday coloring page shows the happiest party in dinosaur history. A round little T rex in a pointy hat stands behind a two layer cake with three candles, while a triceratops and a stegosaurus arrive in their own party hats. Flags across the top spell out HAPPY ROAR. It is an easy, joyful page for kids from about 3 to 9.

Tall tree ferns hold up the line of flags on either side. Balloons float in the gaps, gifts sit on the table and on the ground, and bits of confetti drift all around. There are no people here at all. It is a party just for dinosaurs.

Dinosaur birthday coloring page party ideas

If you are planning a party, this page can do real work for you. Print one for each child and put them at the table with a small cup of crayons. Early guests have something to do, and parents get a few calm minutes.

• Clip each finished page to a string and hang them up as party art.
• Roll one up with a ribbon and tuck it into each goody bag.
• Write the date on the back as a keepsake for the birthday child.
• Use a sheet as a place mat, then cover it with clear tape.

Color the cake first

The cake sits right in the middle, so kids usually want to start there. The bottom layer has stars, and the top layer has a heart. Icing drips down over both layers in soft scallops, and they look lovely left white.

Try pink on the bottom layer and yellow on the top, or copy the colors of the real birthday cake. Candles can be any two bright colors, but the flames should be yellow in the middle and orange at the edge.

Party colors for the guests

The T rex has a pale tummy with four curved lines, which helps it look round. Its small spots can be a darker shade of the body. The real color of a tyrannosaur is a mystery, as with almost every dinosaur, so a purple birthday boy or a pink birthday girl is perfectly fair.

Give the guests different colors so that they stand apart. The stegosaurus has lots of plates, and a rainbow of them makes a fine party outfit. The balloons should all be bright. Red, yellow and pink are the ones we would pick.

The flags repeat in a pattern. Older kids can make it a real sequence, such as red, yellow, blue and pink, and keep it going to the end of the line. That is a little math hiding in plain sight.

Plan on twenty minutes or so. Little ones can stop after the cake and the T rex, which is more than enough for a proud display.

Did dinosaurs have birthdays?

Not with cake, sadly. But every dinosaur had a hatch day. Evidence suggests that all dinosaurs laid eggs, and many of them built nests. So the first birthday of any dinosaur was the day it broke out of a shell.

The word dinosaur has its own birth date of a kind. Richard Owen coined the term in 1842. And dinosaurs still have birthdays today, because birds are the only dinosaurs left alive. The robin in your yard is a distant relative of this T rex. The Wikipedia article on dinosaurs explains how that works.

Party game: pin the tail

Color and cut out the T rex, then cut off the tail. Tape the body to a wall. Each child wears a blindfold, gets a spin and tries to stick the tail back on with a bit of tape. Whoever gets closest wins a sticker. It takes about ten minutes to set up, and kids tend to want a second round.

You could also ask each guest to count the gifts and whisper the number to you. Everyone who gets it right blows out a paper candle.

For more party art, print the birthday cake coloring page or the balloons coloring page. Both match nicely with this one on a party table.

Questions