Arctic Letters Sensory Bin

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INSIDE: Arctic Letters Sensory Bin is a fun way to practice letters and letter sounds this winter. Create this hands-on learning Arctic landscape sensory bin using real or fake snow for your toddler or preschooler to learn and play with!

My toddlers got a few new TOOB animals in their stockings this Christmas. One got Arctic Animals and one got penguins. I was super excited to incorporate them into a sensory play activity this week. Even though we had snow on the ground outside I decided to make some fake snow for this activity.

Looking for more Fun Winter Activities? Check out these fun ideas:

If you don’t have small arctic animals for this activity DO NOT WORRY! There are many things you can use. Here is a list of items you can use instead of TOOBS:

Small Erasers of arctic animals;
Arctic animals stickers. Stick them to cardboard to help protect them;
pom poms.

How to Make Fake Snow

There are many ways to make fake snow. The good things about making fake snow is that it is super easy. Most of the recipes only require 2 commonly found household ingredients. Today I used 1/2 cup of Aloe vera gel and 2 1/2 cups of baking soda. Mix them together until they create a moldable material. You can also use lotion or hair conditioner instead of aloe vera.

Setting up Arctic Letters Sensory Bin

Grab your sensory bin and fill it with your fake snow. Next, add your animals, stickers or erasers. I added a small pool filled with ice and a small amount of water. You can use a bowl and surround it with small pebbles. If you don’t have these not to worry, remember to use what you have, such as pom poms or regular rocks.

Creating Arctic Letters

To create the letters I used packing foam peanuts. I took my sharpie and wrote capital letters on them. If you don’t have packing foam peanuts you can just use small cut out pieces of white paper with the letters written on them. Finally, I pulled out a few muffin tins and washi tape and wrote out lower case letters on the washi tape and stuck it inside each muffin tin.

How They Played Arctic Letters Sensory Bin

First, I had them match the letter peanuts with the correct spot in the muffin tin. As they did I called out the letter sound or asked them to do so as well. I highlighted some words that started with that letter and asked if they could think of any themselves. Remember learning the letter sounds is far more important to later reading success than learning the names of the letters.

After they were done matching the letters, they played with the sensory bin! The perfect combination of learning and play!

Supplies

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