This was by far the most fun I’ve had with a program! I came across this idea through The Lego Librarian and knew that we had to do the same! Attached you will find what we did for our program, as well as photos of the games, crafts, and activities. Hope this is helpful when you plan your own Tea Rex Party!
MINI STORYTIME
Unfortunately, our internet crashed on this day, so we weren’t able to watch the etiquette videos below, so we started with How to Behave at a Tea Party by Madelyn Rosenberg and talked about how we should act at a tea party. We then invited Ms. Rex in to the tea party and taught her “I’m a Little Teapot.” After many giggles, we read about how she behaved at her last tea party in Tea Rex by Molly Idle and ended storytime with a T-Rex photo-op!
LESSON 1: A good host must always serve tea to their guests first.
LESSON 2: A proper guest should always sip and not slurp their tea.
LESSON 3: Always gently blot your mouth with your napkin and never rub.
LESSON 4: A guest should take small portions and never fill their plate.
SNACKS & SWAG BAGS
When I started planning this event I knew three things: 1) We’d have a live dinosaur guest, 2) there would be snacks, and 3) we would give away prizes. Of course, the more we thought about time restraints and being fair, the more I considered just giving away “swag bags” like you would a gift bag at party. Below, are the snacks we munched on and the prizes (with links) we included in their take-home bags.
SNACKS & DRINKS
- Apple Juice
- Lemonade
- Fudge Stripes (Dino stripes)
- Nilla Wafers
- Veggie Tray (Herbivores)
- Apple Slices (Herbivores)
- Fruit Snacks (Herbivores)
- Meat & Cheese Tray (Carnivores)
- Goldfish (Carnivores)
- Mini Cupcakes
SWAG BAGS
CRAFTS & PASSIVE ACTIVITIES
We made the same puppets The Lego Librarian featured on their site, which you can get here, as well as a doily dinosaur (shown below).
For the doily dinosaurs, I found a free Diplodocus template from The Craft Train and a T-Rex from this link. I modified the dimensions (about a half sheet) to fit to the doilies we bought, but also added another leg to the T-Rex to fill out the design. To make this simpler, I pre-cut the bodies of the dinosaurs and put them in baggies with a doily, which was cut in half to hold the dino pieces in place, and a googly eye. This gave those who came in late or didn’t want to sit for a craft the opportunity to create the doily dinosaur at home. We also included a photo (like below) of the associated dino to show what it should look like.
Our passive activities were just some free printables related to the theme, as shown below:
- The Lego Librarian’s Tea Rex Party Word Search (comes with answers as well)
- Tea Party Coloring Page
- Tea Rex by Molly Idle Maze through Teacher Vision (Free with sign up, comes with really cute packet of activities related to the book)
GAMES
I created a Tea Rex Party Match (BINGO is copyrighted/trademarked) with 4 different playing cards of the same pictures. While this meant only 4 kiddos could play at one time, it did make them spread out and play another game or complete a craft while they waited for each round to end.
For our Tea Party Walk, I used the same descriptions as The Lego Librarian, but created my own signs. These were placed in the center of the room for kids to complete at their own pace. It was so cute seeing some of the girls curtsy and bow. Their favorite, by far, was trying to balance books on their heads.
Dinosaur Memory was a simple egg match, with a surprise dino! I found different eggs on Google Images and created cards using Canva, which were then laminated. Kids were asked to make pairs of matching eggs, with an added challenge of seeing who could find the dinosaur pair first! This can be a timed, individual challenge (competition style) or free play with a partner.
Highlights & Extras
I found this playlist last minute (since our internet was down until after the storytime) and it worked out great! We played it for the remainder of the program, which added a little more to the tea party atmosphere.
Ms. Rex visited and we taught her “I’m a Little Tea Pot,” then heard about how she behaved at her last tea party.
Photo-op!
I could not get over this cutie! She is a big fan of dinosaurs and came ready for the day with her dinosaur dress and stuffed dino. ADORABLE! She even learned to curtsy as she left…sort of.
And finally, the craft my coworker deemed “dinosaur cabaret.” Check out those gams!
Rhyming Reasor 
Thank you so much for putting up this plan. We’re thinking about having one here at our little library during Dino-vember, and your plan is making it super easy for us. Thank you a million times!
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I love that! I’m so glad this is helpful 😊
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