Arctic Sensory Bin

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Ready for the easiest sensory bin EVER?  Seriously it took minimal time to assemble and my girls LOVED it.  They played with it when I introduced it and a few days later with daddy (who was just as intrigued as the girls) and my two year old has asked to play it two or three other times.  I apologize for the pictures.  I thought I took some without kid hands of it when I set it up but they have disappeared from my computer and phone.  And because my girls were so excited, their hands are in constant motion in every picture!

 Ingredients needed:
-Water
-Plastic bin
-Water Beads
-Arctic TOOB animals

This was our first time using water beads.  I have NO idea what I was waiting for because they are so easy and so fun with minimal mess.  Because I wanted to create the bin the next day, I bought my water beads from Joann's.  They were definitely more money but I wanted them fast and I knew I wanted clear and blue.  I think in the future I will order from Amazon instead of spending almost $5 for each pack.  You can find these in the floral sections since they are designed to hold water in vases.


I found our TOOB of arctic animals at Michael's before Christmas and it was on sale.  I feel like I don't see them on sale (like $3 off the normal $10ish price) so I grabbed them.  So definitely buy online or use a coupon to save you some money.


I read the directions on the water beads but I didn't really know how much they would expand or really what I was doing.  I just dumped the tiny beads (not the whole pack - maybe 1/4 to 1/2) and poured water in the bucket.  I checked the next day and they were bigger but there wasn't enough so I dumped in more with more water.  This second batch didn't seem to expand as much so we had a few different sizes.

 I attempted to put the "ice" on one side of the tub and the "water" on the other side.  Then I put the animals in the appropriate places and let the girls go to town.  They had SO much fun playing with these beads.  They are slippery and leave a little water on your hands but there really is no mess involved.  Unless your two year old gets going crazy and they come out of the box and you step on them.  SPOILER ALERT - they smoosh!

The girls loved playing with the animals but quickly asked for spoons and buckets and spent time filling and dumping and mixing.  

This sensory bin was definitely a hit and I'm excited to come up with other ideas for using water beads.  I've also come to the realization that I probably need to get a bigger sensory bin so they can both have space to play.