Things have been really hectic around our house lately (more to come on that), so I haven’t had much time to focus on creating new activities for the boys. However, these three winter sensory activities were so quick and easy to pull together! I love giving Noah the opportunity to explore new items through sensory play. It gives us a great opportunity to introduce new vocabulary and topics. He’s loved this Winter themed sensory bin! Most of all, he loves the animals in it!
Winter Sensory Bin
Here’s what I included in our Winter themed sensory bin:
- Felt snowmen
- Snowflakes (wooden and soft – a great chance to talk about texture differences like hard and soft or pointy edges).
- Animals – Polar bear, penguin, wolf
- Snowballs
- Blue and white pom poms
- Styrofoam packing material
- Purple, blue, and silver jingle bells
I love this bin because we’ve been able to do so many fun things with it! Here are a few different ways you can use this bin:
- Shake jingle bells while singing songs
- Animal hide and seek (hide animals under the “snow” and let your child search for them)
- Toss the snowflakes in the air to make it snow! Makes a mess, but it’s fun. :).
- Use different shades of blue pom poms to talk about light blue versus dark blue.
- Use the different shades and colors of pom poms to talk about and demonstrate patterning (light blue, white, dark blue, light blue, white, dark blue).
We’ve also been having a lot of fun painting snowmen! I printed out a free snowman picture online and laminated it. Then all I needed was shaving cream and a paintbrush (or just hands!). It’s a great activity because we can use the laminated snowman pictures over and over. When Noah starts getting antsy in the late afternoons during Liam’s fussy time of the day, this is a super simple activity that I can pull out in seconds!
We also created a squishy Winter Wonderland bag. Noah helped decorate the outside of a plastic bag with winter themed stickers. I filled it with blue hair gel and glitter. That’s it! It feels really neat because its cool to the touch and squishy. Noah and Liam have both had fun squishing it!
My favorite books to go along with these activities are Snowy Day and the Secrets of Winter Shine-a-Light book.
What are your favorite indoor winter activities?