Dinosaur Sensory Box

Last night I showed you this picture, which was a preview for a little something I whipped up to help keep Charlotte entertained for the remainder of this long, boring winter.

It’s a strange assortment of supplies, for sure. What on earth could someone make with dried pasta, beans, funnels, plastic dinosaurs, and a neon alphabet?

Well, as you probably guessed from the title, I made Charlotte a dinosaur-themed sensory box!

As you can see, I left out some of the supplies in that first picture just to make it harder for you to guess. Here is what I used to make this box o’ fun:

The only thing I had on hand were the beans, so everything else had to be purchased for about $25. It’s not the cheapest project in the world, but I’ll be able to reuse all of this stuff if I ever want to change the theme of the box down the road. Plus, who couldn’t always use another storage bin?

If you are like me, then you are probably wondering what the heck is a sensory box and how did you come up with this idea?

Well, my friends, I owe every ounce of my “creativity” to the internet, where I can legally steal other people’s ideas and make them my own. Pinterest has been a major contributor to my thievery.

A while back, I pinned this link from Pink and Green Mama.

Source: pinkandgreenmama.blogspot.com via Katy on Pinterest

 

This blog is great because the Pink and Green Mama, MaryLea, is a former art teacher who has a gajillion fun and creative art and craft ideas for kids of all ages. I bookmarked her blog way back when Charlotte’s favorite extracurricular activity was drooling, knowing that I’d want to come back for some ideas later.

If you check out that post (by clicking on the image), you’ll see that MaryLea has made tons of sensory boxes for her kids. She’s made an apple picking box, an ice cream shop box, and even a wedding box. Basically, she’s awesome, and I really want to go over to her house to play with everything she’s made for her kids.

But the dinosaur box is all mine. (At least I think so.) Charlotte is loving dinosaurs these days, and she enjoys talking about dinosaur bones and teeth and eggs. So I tossed in some ziti and called them bones, threw in some beans and called them eggs, and placed a green bowl inside and told her it was a nest. And what do you know? She believed me!

So far, it has provided lots of uninterrupted play time today, which makes this Mama quite happy.

(I love Buddy in this picture.)

(Oh, and I didn’t end up using the neon alphabet because they have nothing to do with dinosaurs. I’m not sure why I bought them actually. Oh wait, they were a dollar. That’s why.)

As for potential mess-factor, I told Charlotte before she started playing that everything needs to stay inside the box. Obviously, since she is two, there have been a few spills from sloppy funnel play, but it’s nothing my dust buster can’t handle. So far she has not purposely dumped any rice on the floor, but if she does, I’ll just close up the box for awhile so she knows I mean business.

Because everything is more fun on video, here is a short movie of Charlotte enjoying her new sensory box. Enjoy!

 

*Update* After watching this video, I can see that there are plenty of other people who have made dinosaur sensory boxes and videos to showcase them. Thanks for bursting my bubble, Youtube!

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