Sensory Box Puzzle Search

With a very rainy start to our day, I decided to turn our newly dyed rice into a sensory box for our Little Man.  He loves digging.  In dirt, in the sandbox, you name it, if you can dig it, HE WILL!  So, I poured all our rice into one large shallow container.  Of course, I had to take a picture before he dove in.  I could have left it this way...it's just so aesthetically pleasing!

Then I gave him some measuring spoons, cups and small bowls for digging, scooping and pouring.  It didn't take very long before he added his digger and dump truck into the mix.  The best part?  He had a blast playing with this box for almost a solid hour (only to be interrupted by the anticipated arrival of the garbage truck and Garbage Man Gary!)  =)  You can read more about how to make the rice here. 

So...getting to the best part...later in the morning LM asked to "play more rice box."  This time, I had a creative flash and decided to combine his favorite puzzles with the box.  We took his Melissa and Doug chunky farm animal and wild animal puzzle pieces and hid them in the rice.  This added a wonderful tactile aspect to both putting the puzzles back together and playing in the rice.  He had so much fun searching for the pieces, we did it three times!