This is a great, mostly non-messy activity that keeps kids busy for a long time
You’ll need:
- Large plastic container with lid
- dry beans (whatever is cheapest) – enought to fill bottom of conatiner and then some
- plastic beach toys; scoop, funnel, rake, cup, etc.
- kids old enough to know not to eat the beans
To play:
Put beans into container, add toys. Have kids play with the beans inside of the container.
Kids will spend hours in front of their ‘bean box’, scooping and pouring.
Clean up: Snap on lid and store bean box in a cool dry area. Sweep up run-away beans.
Do It And How 
This also works with corn. Just find someone raising feed corn and see if you can get or buy some ears of corn from them.
You want feed corn–not the sweet corn we humans eat. The feed corn is much drier and will last longer–and is not sold in grocery stores.
great idea!