Fizzy Snow Dough Sensory Bin

Create a fizzy snow dough sensory bin inspired by The Snowy Nap by Jan Brett. The farm animals are headed out to play on the icy pond and snowy ground. The snow dough is soft and moldable. Making the snow dough fizz is an fun addition to the sensory experience. I get commissions for purchases made through the affiliate links in this post.

The Snowy Nap by Jan Brett

The Snowy Nap is the newest book from Jan Brett. Penguin Kids sent us a copy for review. I always love reading Jan Brett’s stories. She has such a unique style. Her illustrations add so much character to the book. In this story, Hedgie, the hedgehog, is about to settle down for the winter, but the other animals tell him of all the wintry things he will soon miss. Hedgie decides to stay awake and experience winter. It’s starting to get cold outside and a snowstorm is on its way. A little girl named Lisa picks up Hedgie and takes him inside to stay warm. Hedgie watches out the window and day after day sees all of the wintry things his animal friends had told him he would miss.

I created a fizzy snow dough sensory bin inspired by The Snowy Nap.

Ingredients for Fizzy Snow Dough

1 cup of baking soda
1 cup of corn starch
water (up to a cup)
vinegar

How to Make Fizzy Snow Dough

Combine the baking soda and corn starch in a large bowl. Add water 1/4 cup at a time. Stir to combine. Continue adding water and stirring until you have a fluffy moldable dough.

If you add too much water, it will start to look like oobleck (which is still super fun). Correct this by adding a little more baking soda and/or corn starch.

Play with Fizzy Snow Dough

Add your snow dough to a sensory bin. I used a tray from Ikea that has a tall lip to contain everything. You could use a storage bin or a baking dish as well. If you use a large container, you might want to make more fizzy snow dough to fill the bottom.

I recommend placing a towel or something similar down to cover your floor. My daughter is pretty good at keeping everything in the bin, but my toddler still makes a big mess.

Add farm animals and ice to your bin. I froze a pie pan full of water over night to recreate the frozen pond in the story.

I took the ice out of sensory bin once it started melting. As it melts, the water will turn your snow dough into oobleck.

My kids just love moving the animals around the ice and snow. We built snowmen and the animals smashed them.

How to Make the Snow Dough Fizz

Since the snow dough contains baking soda, it will react with vinegar. I had Lily (age 4.5) put some of the snow dough in a bowl. Then, she poured on some vinegar.

This way they could watch the dough fizz for a bit without getting rid of all of their snow dough. (If you add vinegar to the whole tray of snow dough, it will turn to oobleck or dissolve the dough completely.

Check out the 3 videos below to see how we played with the snow dough. The last video shows the fizzing.

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A post shared by Trisha (@inspire_labs) on Dec 12, 2018 at 3:16pm PST

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