I'm A Dirty Dinosaur Sensory Play

(Affiliate links included for your convenience!) 

We LOVE Usborne books over here. As an Usborne Independent Consultant, I have amassed quite a library. One of the books that Kingston has been really into lately is I'm A Dirty Dinosaur! by Janeen Brian and Ann James. I put together a fun sensory activity to help the story come to life for him!

To help the story come to life, I put together two sensory bins. The first bin was filled with sensory "mud" created using Earths Best Organic Rice Cereal (this also makes a great taste-safe fingerpaint!!) and Pure Vanilla Extract. The rice cereal added a certain amount of grit that lent itself extremely well to a muddy swamp. The vanilla extract added a "smell" component to the activity, as well a nice dingy brown color to the mud. In the mud, I placed one of K's dinosaur friends that most resembled the adorable dino in the book.

The second bin was filled with blue water colored with Fizzy Tub Color Tablets. I like using these bath tabs because they don't stain little fingers!

We read through the story first focusing solely on listening to the plot. Then we read it through a second time, but this time Kingston's took his little dino friend on an adventure! When the dinosaur gets his "snout" dirty and his face dirty, K followed suit and dipped his nose in the muck. 

As the dinosaur in the story gets dirtier and dirtier, so did the dinosaur in our sensory bin. K followed along as I read, dipping the different body parts in the sensory mud and making the dino filthy. As we went through the story, Kingston was chanting certain parts of it and repeating the little rhymes at the end of each part. It was a great activity for reading comprehension and developing critical listening skills. We also were able to include some body part identification! 

Once the dinosaur was good and dirty, K was ready to rinse him in the water. In the story, the dinosaur goes to swamp to give himself "a wash". Kingston loved reciting that part - "Wash, wash, wash, wash, wash, give myself a wash". He recited it as he submerged the dinosaur in the water. 

He dipped the dinosaur in the water and rinsed him off thoroughly. Then it was right back into the sensory mud to get him filthy again. We read the story several times and went through the motions of getting the dinosaur dirty and giving him a wash.

After he was done role playing with the dinosaur, we tossed the book and the dino aside and sunk our hands into the sensory mud for some great messy play! Even Mama joined in!

Interested in purchasing this awesome book? Check out my Usborne Books and More shop! I would love to give your a personal shopping experience and find the perfect books for your kiddos.

Interested in booking a Facebook party? I would love to help you with that too! They are so low maintenance, and you don't even have to clean the house!

Are you following House of Burke? To keep updated on all of the fun, please follow us on Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram!