Even though its messy t it keeps all my children happy and that's what counts. Tape the packing bubbles on the floor. Have the children step on the packing bubbles and see the reaction you get. Another idea is to place pictures of the children under the packing bubbles. A great dry activity for the sensory area is shredded paper.
Most businesses are willing to give it away.
The children love to hide toys in it and most of all, wear it on their heads. I was doing senses as a topic and came up with painting pieces of wood with Kool-aid. I used scrap wood from a lumberyard I added food coloring to the Kool-aid instead of water. The wood smelt for days the children then glued and hammered the wood to make different objects. The children and I were unpacking all the toys we received.