We made “snow”! Inside our nice air conditioned house when it was 108 degrees outside. Kept all three kiddos occupied for over an hour and cost just a couple bucks. I’d say that’s a win! So without further ado…I give you….sensory bin snow!

So first we read a couple books that featured snow (just what we had, but could be a fun library trip to look for “snow” books!). Then we brainstormed characteristics of snow…also made for good writing practice for my two oldest…here is our list…

We also brainstormed how we could make our own snow…mostly that involved giant freezers or magic…haha!….but it was a fun discussion. Finally, Momma revealed the “magic” ingredients…

Yep, dollar store shaving cream and baking soda. That’s it. About $2. I put the baking soda in the freezer the day before so our snow would be cold. We have these awesome sensory bins/stands that my husband built (I really need to make a quick tutorial about those!) but you could very easily just use any plastic tub you have lying around for this (makes for really easy cleanup). So dump the cold baking soda in the plastic bin, squeeze out a ton of shaving cream, and let your kids go nuts!!

We used a whole box of baking soda and a whole can of shaving cream but then it was too wet so we threw in a little more baking soda. It was actually a great lesson to have the kids experiment with the amount and figure out if they needed more of one of the other. I’d suggest having two cold boxes of baking soda and two cans of shaving cream on hand of the experimenting part. And our bin is pretty big…would have been more fun in a smaller bin or to double our recipe, just so there was some depth. But overall, this was great fun…mixing took awhile and then they made snowballs and snowmen and they even tried to make a snow castle!

 

When this was all played out, we did one last experiment. We had done the whole baking soda and vinegar thing in the past so I asked “what will happen if we add vinegar?”. Answers varied from “melting” to “erupting” but when we did it…we got FOAM! Yep! So then we had to play around in that mess for awhile too.

 

Overall, this was fun, cheap, easy, and provided some actual learning and entertainment. Clean up wasn’t bad either…they washed hands while I dumped most of the contents into the trash, then I simply rinsed the bin in the bathtub. Give it a try for a cool, indoor summer activity and let me know how it goes! 🙂