Digging for Shark Tooth Fossils Sensory Bin

Did you know sharks lose thousands of teeth in their lifetime and that they are simply replaced by other teeth? This is why shark tooth fossils abound on beaches and are easily found!

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Sharks have been a topic of interest in our house lately. After reading about shark tooth fossils in our favorite book, Hark! A Shark! All About Sharks (Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library), I thought it would be fun to create a sensory bin for Caden to try digging for shark tooth fossils just like a real shark biologist!

Supplies for Shark Tooth Fossil Sensory Bin:

Plastic Bin
Sand
Shark Tooth Fossils
Shark Figures
Water
Blue and Green food coloring

Sensory bin set up:

Cover plastic bin in layer of sand.
Fill the bin half way with water.
Mix in blue and green food coloring.
Hide shark tooth fossils in the sand.
Add some shark figures to the water.

Once you have this sensory bin all set up, lay out some towels and invite your children to come and dig for shark tooth fossils! While searching for shark teeth you can read some shark tooth facts to the kids and practice counting skills as they find them! A plastic egg carton makes a handy sorter for the shark teeth and is an easy for preschoolers to work on one-to-one correspondence!

Caden enjoying just playing in this sensory bin as well. He would use the sharks to move the sand around in the bin and scoop some into the plastic egg carton. And of course, he also loved splashing the water around too!

Searching for the hidden shark tooth fossils was a real challenge and a fun way to practice visual scanning! The shark tooth fossils really blend in with the sand and blue-green water!