There are so many ideas for a dinosaur sensory bin. The options go on forever. When we did a dinosaur-themed Yogalore class recently, I wanted to try something I hadn’t tried before. What I liked about this particular sensory bin is that it had several concepts and activities in one container.

NOTE: Please remember there are small items in many sensory bins. This is an activity that you need to monitor carefully to make sure your child doesn’t put something they shouldn’t into their mouths. Never leave a child unsupervised.

There are so many things I like about sensory bins in general, which is one reason we have a sensory component in the Yogalore curriculum. I also like that with sensory play you can make it work for one or two children at home or have a larger sensory bin or table at school. There’s of course the benefits of sensory play. Our dinosaur sensory bin also focused on the idea of sorting and learning colors while also learning the names of each dinosaur.

I first found some some dinosaur counters on Amazon. * They are by Learning Resources, which is a brand I love. I know I pay a little more for them, but they hold up well, look great, and I can use them for so many different activities. To me, it was worth it, but of course you can use a cheaper option for your dinosaurs. This just happened to work for me.

I also came across these cool gemstones, which were smooth and so beautiful, I knew the kids would love them (and they did!). These too were more than what I usually spend on things for the sensory bins, but there are other options that are less expensive. I liked them because they were natural looking and went with our other items so well. The point was to have some colorful small things in the bin that they had to pick out and sort. They thought it was a “treasure hunt” and really liked digging around trying to find certain colors.

Here are the items we used in our dinosaur sensory bin:

Sensory Container
I use whatever large yet shallow container is durable. The larger ones I have now are stackable and I love that. If you are looking for something smaller, an individual size, I love the plastic storage containers at the Dollar Tree. I didn’t know this until recently but you can order them online from the Dollar Tree. I was making activity kits so I needed a lot. I like these containers so much I might do a post just on those!

Sensory Medium
I used black beans. I wanted something dark that would contrast with the gemstones, so they worked really well. But you can use rice, pasta, split peas, Kidfetti, whatever you like to fill your bin. You want to have enough of whatever you choose that children can bury their hands in (that’s usually my rule of thumb).

Gemstones/Small Colorful Pieces
As I mentioned earlier, the gemstones were not cheap, but I knew I would use them repeatedly for different things. This kind of thing is a work item for me, so my use if going to be different than most parents or caregivers. You can use the little plastic gems, colorful buttons, wooden beads, any number of things you could sprinkle in that would have to be picked out. If you are putting together a small individual sensory bin, you can probably get a very small bag of gemstones for a reasonable price.

Artificial Plants
Artificial plants aren’t a must but I like having them for the dinosaur “habitat”. The children love planting them into the black beans and playing with them. You can find these on Amazon or places like Walmart in the pet section. I get some that are rather large, but most of them pull apart into sections to have more in the bin for multiple children.

Scoops and “Tools”
We had plenty of scoops and collapsible funnels available in our dinosaur sensory bin. You can also have items like measuring cups, small bowls or containers (to sort out the smaller items). With only a few exceptions I get most all my utensils for sensory bins from the Dollar Tree. I especially like their scoops.

In hindsight I wish I had thought to have the jumbo plastic tweezers to pick up the gemstones and put them in their containers. It’s such a great fine motor/dexterity activity. I will definitely do that next time. This was easy to put together and has been a huge hit in the classroom. Sensory bins have so many options that you can really take ideas and make it your own for your home or classroom.

*There are affiliate links in this post.

If you’re looking for more dinosaur activities for your dinosaur theme, try some of our dinosaur theme products on TpT!