Halloween Sensory Activity- Let's Dig out Bones!

I'm a crafter by nature.  I like painting, gluing, and drawing.  Messy sensory activities just don't come naturally for me.  But since Halloween celebrates slimy, icky, things.... I figured we should do a sensory activity.   So tada!  Today's blog post is all about this Halloween Bone Dig Sensory Activity!

Halloween Bone Dig Sensory Activity

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I watch the tv show Bones, so I definitely channeled Dr. Brennon and her squints while setting up the activity.  Usually Chuck doesn't like getting his hands dirty, but for some reason he LOVED digging out the "bones" and squishing the "blood" around.

Ok!  Let's get started!

Materials

• Gallon Milk Jug
• Scissors
• Sharpies
• Jello  (I used a very large 8 serving packet of jello.)
• Rice
• Cutlery and tools to dig out bones
• Various Containers
• Nail Polish Remover

Let's do a bone dig!

Make a DIY Milk Jug Skeleton:

(You could also just buy a skeleton from the store.  I had a milk jug on hand and wanted to see if I could make my own set of bones.)

1.  Wash and dry your milk jug.
2.  Cut out the flat portions from your milk jug.
3.  Look at an image of a skeleton and sketch out your bones with Sharpies.  (Or, you could just freehand them too.)
4. Cut everything out.
5.  Use nail polish remover  to get rid of your Sharpie marker.  The kind with acetone works better than the kind without!


Set Up the Dig:

1.  Follow the jello packet's instructions to make jello.
2.  Pour the liquid into a container and then drop your bones inside.  Milk jug plastic is extremely light, so your bones will float on top.  I sprinkled some rice inside to help push some bones down.  This made it much more difficult to find all the bones.  Does the rice remind you of maggots?  (Gross, I know... but it fits in with the Halloween theme!)
3.  Draw a picture of your skeleton to help guide your child.


Dig up your bones!

(I should have done this activity outside.  Oy! Cleanup was pretty tough because rice and jello went everywhere!)

Here's a photo showing how everything was set up.

 We've found some bones!

Chuck had a blast cutting into the "blood" and finding the bones.  Because milk jug plastic is so translucent and thin, we couldn't just rely on our tools to dig them out.  We had to get our hands dirty!

Once we found all the bones I helped Chuck assemble them back in correct order by looking at our drawing.

Looking for other Halloween activities? 

• Halloween Ghost Splat Painting
• 10-Minute Stocking Spider Costume!
• Recycled Pumpkin Sun Catchers

Looking for other fun Halloween sensory activities? 

• Magic Fizzy Sand
• 3 Ingredient Borax Free Slime

Let's Keep in Contact!

Like this idea?  You can always find other fun ideas on my Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts!



Enjoy the messy sensory play, friends!