Dino-land Sandbox

I'm always on the look out for new sensory activities and themes. I had planned on creating a Dino-land in our sensory bins (16 qt. Sterilite containers), but as I filled them with sand and I looked over at our empty and in need of a better than excellent scrubbing, that's when the idea struck. Why am I filling these with sand to bring into the house for sensory play??? Lets bring the sensory play outside to the sandbox. Enter a sandbox Dino-land:

Our oldest son received a dinosaur tracks trivia game for Easter. I snatched some of the prints and created dino prints leading up to the sandbox. I plan on using these tracks to do a Dino Hunt in the backyard.

I purchased this bin of dinosaur figurines from Toys R Us for $24. It included volcanos, trees, rocks, and several species of dinosaurs. After filling the sandbox with as much as I could, the bin was still nearly half full with dinos, trees, and rocks. The kids will be able to create a dino-land indoors with the remaining figurines. This was well worth the money and decent quality too--hopefully they'll hold up for all of our dinosaur paintings, experiments, and what-not.

My biggest worry about doing an outdoor sensory "bin" like this is all of the pieces getting thrown around the yard and falling victim to the mower. I have a feeling it will take an extra watchful eye on my part, but if all goes well, I'll happily do sandbox sensory activities throughout the summer. Some of the other sandbox sensory themes I have in mind are: safari dessert, farming--complete with animals and tractors, and a mini beach.