Preview: Five different sensory bins all using Instant Snow!
Have you had enough of the snow yet? I feel like we have had non stop snow since the beginning of December. I'm definitely sick of it, but my kids love it. Even though we have the real thing, we like to play with the pretend stuff inside. I've shared our
Instant Snow Sensory bin before, but today I've got
5 different ways that you can make an instant snow sensory bin.
#1 Snow Fun by Itself
First you are going to need some
Instant Snow to Go (the packaging looks different from ours). I bought ours on Amazon, but I saw it around Christmas time at Home Depot. Then get a plastic bin to mix the snow and the water. The package has the correct proportions, but I've found it to be pretty forgiving. It is fun to watch the snow instantly appear.
The first way I would recommend using this sensory bin is just with the snow by itself, especially if your little one has never used it before. Let them touch it and scoop it. You could even add in some little scoops and cups and just let them play with the snow.
#2 Letter Practice in the Snow
I gathered some
foam bath letters and some
magnetic letters to review letters that I've covered with my youngest. Her big sister happened to be home so I had them work together. Big Sister called out letters and Little Sister had to dig and find them.
#3 Winter Counting Practice in the Snow
To create this sensory bin, I used some foam mittens that I had on hand. I wrote the numbers 1-10 on them. Then I threw in some
foam snowflakes. I told the girls to pick a mitten and then count out the correct number of snowflakes to match the number on the mitten.
#4 Animal Habitat Sorting in the Snow
Next up we added a bunch of animals to the snow. We love the Safari TOOB sets of animals. We honestly have so many sets so I can't be sure which ones we threw in, but I made sure we had our
Arctic Toob Animals in there. We also had some
farm animals and
jungle friends. Then I gave my girls two bowls and had them sort animals that would be in the snow and animals that would not be in the snow. Then they used the snowy animals and played in the fake snow.
#5 Mini Ice Cubes in the Snow
Next we used ice cubes in the shape of gingerbread men in the snow. I found this tray at our local Meijer/grocery store near the candy making supplies. They are silicone at the bottom and plastic at the top. It is hard to see them in the snow but the girls played with the little people ice cubes in the snow until they melted.
There you have it. 5 easy ways to use Instant Snow in a sensory bin. Have you tried using Instant Snow in a different way?
