Awesome Fizzy Ice Cream Shop Sensory Bin

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy. Adult supervision is required for all activities found on HappyToddlerPlaytime.com.

Create this super fun and engaging Fizzy Ice Cream Shop Sensory Bin for your kids this summer (or anytime of year) using common household ingredients! This is an easy STEAM activity for toddlers, preschoolers and even older kids!

Ice Cream You Cream We All Scream for Ice Cream

In this fun activity, you’re going to create an ice cream shop using a special type of dough made with baking soda. This dough is moldable so your little one can form scoops of ice cream with it but since its also made using baking soda its perfect for doing acid-base STEAM experiments!! When you add vinegar, carbon dioxide gets released in the coolest way!

Check out my short-form crafting series Curious Crafting on TVOkids and TVOkids YouTube! Watch all the episodes here.

How to Make a Fizzy Ice Cream Shop Sensory Bin

In a bowl combine baking soda, water, dish soap and a drop of pink food colouring.

2. Mix the ingredients until you have a moldable dry dough. The dough should not be too wet but it should stick together when you hold it in your hand and make a fist. If its too dry, add a few drops of water.

3. Repeat these instructions for purple and brown or any other colours or “flavours” your little one enjoys.

4. Place the different coloured dough into a sensory bin. Add ice cream cones. We used real and play plastic ones. Add scoopers, we also used real and toy scoopers. You can also add small bowls and any other ice cream shop toys you have. We also added an ice cream container. I’ve seem people save their containers to add into sensory bins like this. Super fun!

5. To hold the ice cream cones, I used our test tube stand. You can also use a popsicle stand, if you have one.

6. Finally, add rainbow sprinkles and pom poms. I actually used rainbow rice. You can either use rainbow rice or real sprinkles. I just didn’t have any rainbow sprinklers left to use but I did have rainbow rice. (Did I mention that I am a kid’s activity blogger!). Learn how to make rainbow rice here.

How to Play with your Fizzy Ice Cream Shop Sensory Bin

Let your little one scoop and play with the baking soda ice cream dough before adding the vinegar. They can pretend to take orders and set up all the various cones of ice cream. Let them make banana splits, sundaes, whatever they like. Once they have used up all the dough, its time to add the fizz!

Fill a squeeze bottle with half water and half white vinegar. This will allow you to save vinegar. Believe me, this activity will quickly go through all the vinegar you have if you don’t. You can also experiment with different vinegar solutions, giving them more or less vinegar in different squirt bottles.

Hand them the squeeze bottles and let the fizziness begin!

Science Behind the Fizzy Ice Cream Shop Sensory Bin

What happens when you combine baking soda with vinegar? Fizz! But why does this happen with two seemingly common ingredients. Baking soda is a base and vinegar is an acid. When an acid and a base mix they produce a gas called carbon dioxide.

The release of this gas causes the eruption and fizzy sound that comes from the ice cream dough.

One of the things my kids loved to do was to pick up the ice cream dough, add vinegar and make it fizz in their hands! It feels very cool. Make sure your kids give it a go!

Age Suitability

This activity is good for kids 3 years and up. My kids are 4, 4, and 8 year old.

Mess Level

This is a mess level is high.

Difficulty to Create

Medium.

Skills Developed in Fizzy Ice Cream Shop Sensory Bin

Sensory play, language development, hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, imaginative play, creativity.

Supplies for Fizzy Ice Cream Shop Sensory Bin

(This post and list contains affiliate links for your convenience. If you make a purchase using one of these links, I may earn a commission. Please visit my disclosure policy for more information.)

1 cup of baking soda
2 tablespoons of water
1 tablespoon of dish soap
Food colouring
Sensory Bin
Ice cream shop toys
Scooper (real or fake)
Ice cream cones (real or fake)
Squeeze bottles
Vinegar
Water

Check out My Books, TV Show & Play Kits!

Book: Exciting Sensory Bins for Curious Kids

Did you know I wrote a book of sensory bins? Click here for more information Exciting Sensory Bin for Curious Kids. Or grab your copy at Amazon.

Boring afternoons are made exciting with awesome animal-based bins, like Salty Shark Bay or Yarn Farm. Pretend play bins like Birthday Cake Sensory Play or Bubble Tea Party encourage creativity and imagination. And your kids will have so much fun they won’t even know they’re getting smarter with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) activities like Sink or Float Soup, Magnetic Letter Hunt or Ice Cream Scoop and Count.

Book: Super STEAM Activity Book for Kids

Learning all about science, technology, engineering, art, and math sets kids up for scholastic success―and it can be so much fun! Watch kids enjoy building STEAM skills as they color friendly fish, help water find its way to tree roots, solve math problems with mazes, and more.

Find out more and grab your copy here.

Book: Big Book of Riddles for Kids – coming out September 27, 2022

Book: STEAM Crafts for Kids – coming out November 29, 2022

TV Show: Curious Crafting

I’m so excited to finally share my new crafting TV show Curious Crafting which launched July 1 at on TVOkids and TVOkids YouTube!

This show is all about fun and easy crafts for toddlers and preschoolers.

Set in the ultimate crafting space, Curious Crafting is a short form pre-school age series about the joy of making crafts. I lead a rotating cast of adorable little preschoolers (including my own) making magic out of common household objects.

In each episode we transform recycled items into magical crafts like a milk carton school bus, paper bag puppet or cotton pad turtle. The crafters learn and laugh their way through each activity while demonstrating what their young imaginations can create.

Curious Crafting shares the adventure and joy of making art with takeaway lessons for creating crafts at home.

The Best Sensory Play Kits for Kids

Play is at the core of learning during the early years and it can take many forms. One of the most important of these is sensory play because it engages all of a child’s senses (taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing) and has a enoumous positive impact on brain development.

Our Sensory Play Kits are some fun and easy ways to keep your child engaged while at the same time using sensory play to nurture their mind!