Safari Ltd Mammal Skulls Discovery Play

The boys love these mammal skulls which Safari Ltd has sent us!  They specifically love to bury these in the kinetic sand and play scavenger hunt or play-pretend to be scientists.  This is one of the afterschool activities the boys enjoy playing together and working independently.


Usually, Mavi sets up the activity.  His idea was to dig the skulls and match them to our animal figures.  He assembled the sand and the animal figures while instructing Vito to wait till he finished the setup.  I love how Mavi is acting like a leader in this one.  He is now beginning to mentor his brother, especially in creating activities where both can work together.  On my part, I still have to supervise, but minimal.


I instructed the boys to use their protective gear during hammering activities or experiments.


Here Mavi is showing Vito how to clean the skulls.  Because we used kinetic sand, they’re hard to remove from the holes of the skulls, so one should use proper tools to clear the heads with sand.


Once the skulls are cleaned, Vito would look for the animal match (to identify who’s skull it is).  It’s quite tricky, but some heads were easy to locate.  Check out the rhino and the giraffe.  Safari Ltd did a great job here; the figures are so detailed!  These skulls have taught the kids which part of the animal remains after it dies, so all the bony tissues will be left, and the rest will rot.




I was talking about this when I mentioned the kinetic sand seeping through the holes of the skull.  I gave the boys our jumbo plastic needles to remove the sand from the tiny holes in the heads.  I realized that this was a great fine motor skill practice!



I highly recommend this Safari Ltd Mammal Skulls.  It gave the kids a sense of “realistic play” when they dig bones and fossils!  This activity kept my boys engaged and worked together without bickering, LOL.  I stored the kinetic sand and the skulls in a sealed container to take them out whenever they wanted to play with them.  And for safety (especially for younger children), it is important to have some safety accessories like these protective goggles and, of course, parent supervision at all times!


These fantastic figures can be purchased at Amazon Safari Ltd.

If your child is into dinosaurs, you can also check the following for more ideas:

• Fossils For Kids
• Hands-on Learning on the Types of Fossils
• Play-based Dinosaur Activities for Preschoolers

Happy digging!

PS.  I received this set from Safari Ltd in exchange for an honest review.  Any opinions expressed here are my own.