# Green Goo Dinosaur World with Insta Snow > Add far more water than recommended to green-colored Insta Snow to make a gooey, moss-like sensory material. Squash it, roll it into balls, then use it as the base for a dinosaur small world. - URL: https://www.funlittles.com/sensory-activities-green-goo-and-dinosaur-world/ - Ages: 3–7 yrs · Difficulty: easy · Mess: high - Time: prep 10 min, activity 30 min - Works for: one-on-one, small group, whole class · one batch serves about 2 kids - Skills: sensory-exploration, cause-and-effect, pretend-play, fine-motor, language - Cautions: ingestion-risk ## Materials (one batch) - Insta Snow (instant fake snow powder) - Water (household) - Green color for the snow (used in the fake snow painting activity) - 1 piece Tray or foil pan (household) - Spoons (household) - Toy dinosaurs - Toy trees, rocks or other small world props (optional) - Cookie cutters (optional) (household) - 1 piece Mat or tarp (household) ## Safety - Cover the floor with a mat or tarp if playing on the floor. The goo is slippery. - Insta Snow is not food. Supervise closely, keep it out of mouths and eyes, and wash hands after play. - Small toy dinosaurs and accessories can be a choking hazard for children who still mouth objects. ## Before you start - Lay a mat or tarp on the floor if the tray will sit on the floor. ## Steps 1. Put Insta Snow in a tray and add water (about 2 oz per scoop) to make fluffy snow. 2. Color the snow moss green. 3. Break the rules! Keep pouring in more water than recommended until it turns gooey and puddles. 4. Squeeze the goo into a ball with your hands. 5. Squash and explore the goo with spoons, hands and cookie cutters. 6. Add dinosaurs, trees and rocks to build a dinosaur world on the green moss. 7. Make dinosaur families and play out your own story. ## Tips - Compare the two results: add enough water and you get powdery snow, add too much and you get goo. - It's not exactly moldable, so you can't create shapes with it, but it's easy enough to make a ball, and that was interesting. - Our DIY moss could serve as a base for numerous small world set ups. - Let the play be child-led. Ours started as fake snow painting and turned into something more exciting than we initially planned. ## The original post by TurkeyMom (2013) Sensory Activities for Kids : Green Goo and Dinosaur World This post is a great example of child-led sensory activities turning into something more exciting that initially planned. We started off doing **"****[fake snow"painting](https://www.funlittles.com/winter-activities-for-kids-fake-snow-painting/)** with our super awesome product. We have used this to have engage in many more sensory activities for kids - [**winter sensory bin**](https://www.funlittles.com/christmas-tree-craft/) and **[rainbow pretend snow sensory play](https://www.funlittles.com/sensory-activities-for-kids-winter-sensory-with-rainbow-snow/).** Other sensory activities where we used other ingredients to make snow[: "](https://www.funlittles.com/sensory-activities-for-kids-winter-sensory-play-with-pretend-snow/)**[sparkly winter sensory bin"](https://www.funlittles.com/sensory-activities-for-kids-winter-sensory-play-with-pretend-snow/) ,[" writing in fake snow"](https://www.funlittles.com/sensory-activities-kids-prewriting-pretend-snow/), ["I-Spy sensory bin"...](https://www.funlittles.com/winter-sensory-bin-i-spy-sensory-game/)** Take a look at that post and see how the activity developed. What we were left with was a bluish-green sludge.After the kids turned the fake snow into a moss green color, they added more water. Way too much water than the recommended 2 oz/scoop of Insta Snow. At the end, we created a green gooey moss like substance which was sticky enough for the kids to have a fantastic time with some amazing sensory exploration thrown in. By adding too much water, the kids created a green puddle in the tray The painting activity turned into a sensory activity since we are big fans of sensory activities.The Insta Snow couldn't absorb all the water added and it turned very gooey and the girls were able to made it into a ball. It is not exactly moldable that you can create shapes with it but it is easy enough to make a ball and that was interesting. It was great for Big A to see that the outcome to 2 different scenarios. 1. Add enough water, we get snow ( the substance turns powdery) 2. Break the rules! and add too much water you get goo. Here we have our own DIY moss for all kinds of pretend play and small world set up. Messy play lover, my younger one had a grand time squashing with spoons, with her hands and generally exploring the texture of the new material. The material they had fun painting with turned totally different with excess water. That's our "DIY" moss which could serve as a base for numerous small world set ups. Almost naturally, Big A ran off to get her dinosaurs to create a scene.. Oh!" “creating scenes” is all the rage in our household now. Then the girls were lost in their “ Land before time” imaginary play. Creating dinosaur families Talking, bonding and of course squabbling over which way is the best way to set up the dinosaur scene. ### Caution: Make sure you cover the floor with a mat/tarp because this stuff is slippery if you are doing in on a floor. ### Thanks for reading ### Please take a moment to comment **More [*sensory bin ideas*](https://www.funlittles.com/category/sensory-bins/) here** **Even more [*sensory activities for kids*](https://www.funlittles.com/category/messy-play-2/) here** Thanks for stopping by our little space here. We encourage you to stick around and take a look at [**couple of**](https://www.funlittles.com/paint-with-spaghetti-brooms/) our [**popular posts.**](https://www.funlittles.com/animal-resist-painting/) --- ---