7 Ideas for Sensory Play with Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs are a firm favourite amongst most children and playing with them can provide lots of fun learning opportunities from developing language skills to sensory experiences and understanding the world.

Here are 7 of our favourite ideas for sensory play with dinosaurs:

A Dinosaur Garden

Dinosaurs can live in their own special and semi permanent habitat, the dinosaur garden. It is fun to get children involved in designing and creating their own dinosaur garden which can be created around a feature like a tree stump in an outdoor area or in a garden container. Stones, shells, gravel, wood blocks will all create a fun place for dinosaurs to live and hide. Plants like fleshy succulents, prehistoric ferns and aromatic herbs can all be planted in the dinosaur garden helping to fuel the imagination, add a sensory experience and teach children about plants.

Dinosaur Ice Eggs

Little Bins for Little Hands has posted a really fun activity that involves freezing toy dinosaurs into eggs! It combines science, sensory and fine motor practice as well as lots of anticipation and discussion about what is inside the egg and how the dinosaurs can be hatched.

Dinosaurs in a Sticky Swamp

There are lots of possibilities for creating sticky muddy swamps for dinosaurs to play in. Corn flour mixed with water and a little food colouring is interesting for children to play and experiment with. Gelli Baff and Bath Foam can also be used to create a swamp in an activity tray.

DIY Dinosaur Play Mat

We really liked this DIY Dinosaur Play Mat on Fun at Home With the Kids. It is super easy to make and great for indoor or outdoor play. It has a tar pit, a river, trees and a volcano which is the perfect place for dinosaurs to hide.

Natural Dinosaur World

We created a variety of different natural materials including pine cones, drift wood, gravel and moss divided into different zones. Our discovery page has lots of different natural resources which you can use to create a natural dinosaur world for children to play with.

Dinosaurs in the Snow

You don’t have to wait until winter for the dinosaurs (and children) to get the chance to play in the snow. We used Insta-snow in an activity tray to give children the chance to enjoy the snow all year round. You could also add glitter for a little sparkle and ice for an extra sensory experience.