Frozen Winter Sensory Bin

 *This post contains affiliate links

Once upon a time I made a winter sensory bin for my son and our playgroup.  It included colored rice, epson salt, and snowflake confetti.  He had a lot of fun playing in it with friends and on his own.  When we moved on to another season, I stored the sensory material to be used at a later time.  Well, it's roughly 4 years later and my youngest is 3 and loves to make a mess.  Lucky for her, I came across my stash of sensory materials and pulled out the winter bag.  

Preschools often use large sand tables for sensory materials, rotating them throughout the year.  Of course many of us have sand and water tables being stored for warmer weather, but why wait when you can use it for all sorts of play, not just sand and water.  But if you want to do a sensory bin that is easily storable, table or floor friendly, and on the smaller side, shoe box sized storage bins are inexpensive online and at Target, roughly $2.00 a piece.  

The nice thing about this sensory bin is you can keep it simple with just the rice and epson salt and add in small cups or scoops, or you can add toys like Arctic animals or 

Frozen toy figures. My daughter received some Frozen characters for her birthday so it seemed like a natural fit.  I threw in some winter type animals too.

The toys were quickly disregarded as my daughter is a feeler; she was more interested and the texture and flow of the sensory material then the imagination side of the bin.

She quickly made a game of finding the snowflakes and sorting them out next to her.

Make your own Frozen winter themed sensory bin with these materials:

• Shoe box sized plastic bin (6 quarts) or larger
• colored rice (link to recipe)
• Epsom Salt
• Snowflake Confetti
• Frozen characters and/or Arctic animals
• small cups and scoops if desired

Be creative and have fun!   Don't forget to share your pictures with me on Facebook!

  

Mommy & Me Book Club: Winter

*This article contains affiliate links

With the new year I decided it was time to host a Mommy & Me Book Club at my house once a month.  The idea came to me last year when I came across a great blog called The Mommy & Me Book Club.  They read books, create art, and have fun activities all relating to a theme.  As a former preschool teacher, this sounded like a lot of fun and very doable at my home.

I am a member of a super mom's group I found on Meetup.com  This is a great place to find a play group (or any kind of group) in your area.  I talked to one of the leaders and she added me to the calendar.

For January, our theme was winter/snow:

We read:

    

 I created a winter sensory bowl using epson salt, blue rice, and snowflake confetti . 

Then I added scoops, bowls, Arctic animals, and a 2nd bowl filled with shredded white paper, just for fun.

For art, the kids created "snow" pictures using white paint and corks.  While the paint was wet, I gave them a small amount of silver glitter (in a bowl) to sprinkle on the page.  

Then it was snack time.  We created Cinnamon Snowflakes.  The recipe was from Come Together Kids and pinned on Pinterest.  Due to the age of the kids, I did the cutting, but they were able to shake on the cinnamon and sugar.  I have an adorable, clear, bear shaped shaker.  I mix cinnamon and sugar to keep inside.  It was perfect for the kids to use.  They loved this treat so much I couldn't make enough of them.  The parents too!    

So that was our first Mommy & Me Book Club!  It was a small group which was good for a first time.  For February, I'm expecting a much larger group and I'm very nervous.  The kids loved playing together and the moms loved the time to talk.  It's a win, win!