Snowy Arctic Sensory Bin

 

(Bam Bam is 38 months old)

We’re doing a winter/snow/snowman/arctic animals theme this month. Of course we had to have a sensory bin and when talking about winter/snowmen one really needs to get their hands into some snow. We’ve had a couple flurries but that’s about it, so I headed to Hobby Lobby looking for some instant snow…here’s what I found

it looked promising. 
Make Your Own Snowman World by Dune Crafts included:

• water beads (which we already love),
• water cubes that I had not seen before,
• two different polymers to create snow (1 for the base/background and 1 for building the actual snowmen with)
• spoons for mixing
• and a tray to create it all in

I got started hydrating the beads and cubes

the instructions say you can play in as little as 4 hours but for best results hydrate for at least 24 hours, and so that’s what we did.

 

then right before we were ready to play I mixed up the other two polymers

so now we are to my only complaint ….did you see that little tray?!?!


Maybe the way I cropped the picture is deceiving…it’s little bitty…
so, NO, not gonna happen…maybe if you have older more calm/neat children.
For us we needed a deep bucket type bin. (and as I realize later a drop cloth :-))


I put everything in, thought I’d add in some ice cubes as well as arctic animals from a Safari LTD Toob and some penguins from another TOOB (we LOVE TOOBS it’s quite a little story how we finally got these, maybe I’ll tell you one day)

drum roll please…….
The Reveal!

Look at that grin! He was excited but very hesitant to get the snow on his fingers




this is him flapping his fingers to get it off…

but he was soon over it!!

Here is a picture of the snowman creating snow

it holds it’s shape! (but it quickly was all mixed together in the bin). I tried to build a snowman but he was ran over by "happy feet" (said my son as he squashed my snowman with a dancing penguin).


here Bam Bam is showing me a “Caribou-bo” (sounds like cara-boo boo) cracked me up!!
I had him say it over and over … mean momma :-)


When he showed me these penguins I said “Momma and baby penguins” he quickly corrected me that it was a “daddy and big boy” :-)

We had a good ol time. He played for at least an hour. He would have kept playing but was starting to get carried away and ‘snow’ was getting all over the floor (hence the realization a drop cloth would have been nice).

So I put it up for another day.
The instructions with the snow say to be very careful not to get any in your sink drains (but if you do, pour in generous amounts of salt).
I just got a little bowl of water and dipped my animals in for a quick bath.


You can throw the left overs away in the trash or let them dry out, rehydrate them, and  play again.


I’m not sure how that will work with our all mixed up together batch but I’m going to try it and see.

I printed off some flashcards from this site to match with the animals found in the Toob.

Bam Bam wasn't interested in this at the time...I'll try again later.

DO you want to see some more winter / snow arctic themed sensory bins? Take a look at
H is for Homeschooling
In Lieu of Preschool
Life with Moore Babies

Also, if you’re planning a similar theme take a look at my Winter/Snow Pinterest board for some inspiration.

Here’s what I’ve got planned Winter Break Fun-The Plan and I’ll be posting action shots all month!
You can follow along on Facebook or Pinterest.

Thanks for stopping by!!

(…. just so you know I was not asked to review anything in this post. These are just my opinions and I was not compensated in any way by the company’s whose products I mentioned)

Shared with
Tot School @ 1+1+1=1

Link & Learn @ No Tine For Flashcards