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Last year, my girls loved our arctic sensory bin with animals and water beads. I wanted to do something similar this year - a winter themed sensory bin. I started seeing other teachers/parents on Instagram trying out this "fake snow" and I knew I wanted to try it. I figured snow would make the perfect base for the bin. Then we would add some blue water using the water beads again. Throw in some penguins and my girls can pretend they are in a penguin habitat.
To make a bin similar to ours, gather the following ingredients.
Supplies Needed:
-Water
-Instant Snow
-Blue water beads
-Penguins or Arctic Animals
-Plastic Bin
-Smaller bin or bowl
I put the water beads in a smaller bowl and added water. Once the water was all absorbed and the beads were still on the small size, I added more water to get them to really expand to capacity. I did these in the morning because it takes awhile for them to grow to capacity and I wanted to play with the bin in the afternoon.
Next, I added the snow powder to the big bin. Read the directions that come with your snow. It says how much powder and water you need. I wasn't sure how much it would expand so we would make a batch, and then add more snow powder and water until we got the right amount in the bin. I felt like with the brand that we used, I needed more water than the directions said. From what I could tell, you couldn't really overwater it. It just keeps growing and expanding. The fake snow is a different consistency - it sort of feels like real snow yet it doesn't melt. It takes on the temperature of the water that you use, but I noticed when we came back to the bin the following day, the snow felt cold.
Once all the supplies were in our bin, I added our plastic penguins.
