Help your preschooler practice color recognition and color names with this fabulous snow sensory bin. It’s a fun and educational way to bring the magic of winter indoors this season. 

There’s just something magical about a snow day. Is it the extra family time, the hot chocolate, or the numbing tingle of a snowball to the face? Perhaps, it’s a little bit of everything. But either way, snow days are beloved by kids of all ages. This snow sensory bin is a great way to bring some of that snow day magic indoors for a little learning fun.

Snow Sensory Bin: Digging for Colors

Materials:

• plastic bin
• multi-colored counters or a variety of food pouch tops
• fine motor tools, like scoops, tweezers, spring-loaded chopsticks, spoons
• snow, shaved ice, or ice chips, at least 4 cups
• gloves

No matter what filler material you use, be sure to check your child’s hands frequently to make sure they aren’t getting too cold. You definitely don’t want any frostbite. If your kids’ hands are getting cold, definitely put gloves on them before you allow them to continue playing. 

This bin can be used in a variety of ways, depending on the ages of your kids. Young toddlers can just enjoy the cold sensations of touching and feeling snow as they rake their hands through the bin to grasp counters. Older toddlers and preschoolers can use the bin for color practice, by naming the color of each counter they find in the bin or locating specific colors upon request.

Related Read: Things to Do with Kids in the Smoky Mountains

Young toddlers will be building fine motor skills the entire time they are interacting with the box, even if they don’t use any tools. At this young stage, they can benefit from any opportunity to hone their pincer grasp, which they will be using to pick up the counters with their hands. The pincer grasp is used when you pick up something between your thumb and forefinger.

Older toddlers and preschools can also work on developing fine motor skills, by using a variety of tools to dig through the bin and grasp the counters. These fun scoops are a neat way to build fine motor skills. To use them, kids move their hands as though they were using scissors. Instead of cutting, the hand movement causes a scooper ball to open up, so the kids can use it to grab the desired item. So cool!

Related Read: Counting Snowflakes Sensory Bin

We truly hope you love this bin as much as we did! Happy learning, y’all!