Melted Snowman Sensory Bin
This fun melted snowman sensory bin uses an oobleck base and craft materials to create a super fun sensory bin that goes great with many popular kids’ books and is perfect for kids of all ages.
Children will love creating melted snowmen with pipe cleaners, buttons, and more. The fun texture of the sometimes solid and sometimes liquid base will have children playing and creating snowmen for hours.
This snowman sensory bin was a favorite one in our home. It kept my 2, 4, and 6 year olds occupied for long amounts of time. We loved pairing this sensory bin with the book “Sneezy the Snowman” as it makes the perfect literacy connection. You can also add letters to the sensory bin to work on letters and sounds for a bonus literacy activity.
Melted Snowman Sensory Play Set-Up Tips
*When setting up this sensory bin you can make it on a small scale in a small tray or in a large scale for a classroom or group of children in a large tub with more cornstarch and water. We’ve also done oobleck in our water table depending on the weather.
*You should use cornstarch for this sensory bin to get the fun slime-like consistency. Do not substitute with flour as it will not turn out the same. Make sure to mix equal parts water and cornstarch to make oobleck.
*This fun sensory base can be left out overnight to come back and play with another day. It may dry up a bit but you just add in a little more water and it is as good as new.
*For the snowman details you can use different colors and sizes of pipe cleaners as shown in the photos. You can also substitute these with pieces of fabric or felt. You will also need buttons (we used star shaped ones), googly eyes, and optional letters.
*Feel free to add multiple pieces of pipe cleaners or fabric for multiple children to play and make snowmen at the same time. You may also want to add spoons, scoops, cups, and other miscellaneous items to play with in the fun oobleck slime.
*This one is a super messy sensory bin idea. However, cleaning up Oobleck is fairly easy. If it gets on your clothes it is machine washable. If it gets on any surface like a table, chairs, or flooring you just need to wipe it down with a wet rag.
Oobleck Snowman Sensory Bin Directions
Materials:
- Tub or bin
- Cornstarch
- Water
- Pipe cleaners in different colors
- Buttons
- Googly Eyes
- Resin or Magnetic Letters (optional)
- Scoops, spoons, measuring cups, etc…
Directions:
- In a large bin or tub mix equal parts cornstarch and water. Mix them with a spoon or your hands until the water is mostly mixed in and the mixture is slime-like in consistency. If your oobleck is too liquidy, add in more cornstarch. If it is too powdery add in extra water.
- Fold two red or blue pipe cleaners into a hat shape and into a scarf shape.
- Cut a pipe cleaner into thirds and curve one of the thirds to make a smile.
- Fold an orange pipe cleaner into a triangle shape for the carrot nose.
- Drop your pipe cleaner pieces on top of the oobleck in a snowman shape. Add the googly eyes between the hat and the carrot nose.
- Add in buttons underneath the scarf.
- Add in optional letters to spell the word snowman, scoops and spoons to play, and any extra items you may desire.
*This fun winter sensory bin makes the perfect Melted snowman activity. For one more fun melted snowman activity be sure to also check out this fun melted snowman craft using DIY snow paint. The two activities go perfectly together and both go great with one of our favorite winter books; Sneezy the Snowman.
