Ready to spark some chilly fun and unleash creativity? Then you’ll love this fantastic winter sensory activity: an ice castle sensory bin. It’s a fun way to engage young children, develop fine motor skills, and explore winter fun! Get ready for a flurry of excitement as we blend white kinetic sand, peg people, and castle building blocks to create this easy winter sensory bin!
Making a Winter Sensory Bin
Making a winter sensory bin is a fun and hands-on activity that will bring the winter wonderland indoors. This sensory activity not only helps develop fine motor skills but also provides a fun opportunity for imaginative play.
This winter sensory bin is perfect for preschoolers who are just beginning to work on their fine motor skills and sensory development! Exploring textures with white kinetic sand, peg people, and castle building blocks provides a sensory-rich experience, adding excitement to playtime.
When kids grab, stack, and arrange things like building blocks, peg people, or ice cubes in the bin, they’re actually working on their hand-eye coordination. Discussing colors, shapes, and elements in the bin during play contributes to language development in children.
Whether you’re crafting ice caves or building a frozen world, a winter ice castle sensory bin is an easy and enjoyable way to explore the magic of the winter season right in your own home!
Check out more easy to make winter sensory bin ideas!
The Benefits Of Sensory Bins
Are sensory bins worth it? Yes, they are worth it. The more basic you keep the sensory bin, the better off you are. Remember, you create a tactile experience for your kids, not a Pinterest image. While we have fantastic pictures of sensory bins, they only stay that way for a minute!
Sensory bins are awesome hands-on tools for children to learn about their world and senses! Sensory play may calm a child, focus a child, and engage a child.
Here’s what children can learn from sensory bins:
Practical Life Skills ~ Sensory bins let a child explore, discover and create play using practical life skills (dumping, filling, scooping) and learn valuable play skills.
Play Skills {emotional development} ~ For both social play and independent play, sensory bins allow children to play cooperatively or side by side. My son has had many positive experiences with other children over a bin of rice!
Language Development ~ Sensory bins increase language development by experiencing all there is to see and do with their hands, which leads to great conversations and opportunities to model language.
Understanding 5 Senses ~ Many sensory play bins include a few of the 5 senses! Imagine a bin of brightly colored rainbow rice: touch the loose grains against the skin, see the vivid colors as they mix together, and hear the sound of sprinkling over a plastic container or shaken in a plastic egg!
Helpful Sensory Bin Resources
There’s so much more to learn about sensory bins and sensory play.
- Sensory Bin Ideas and Themes
- Best Sensory Bin Fillers
- Non Food Sensory Bin Fillers
- Rice Sensory Bin Ideas
- How To Set Up A Sensory Bin
- Sensory Play Recipes You Can Use
Tips for Using This Winter Sensory Bin
Add In Your Own Accessories
Feel free to add different materials as you see fit for this sensory play activity. Some fun ideas are plastic artic animals, ice blocks, shaving cream, fake snow, white rice, and even cotton balls!
Check out how to make your own fake snow.
Great For Small Group Play
Use this fun activity during the winter months to supplement kids’ lesson plans, whether you’re a parent or teacher. You can use this as an after-school activity or as a learning center for small groups.
Get Outdoors
When the colder weather rolls around, take your kids or students outside to see what real snow looks like for even more sensory fun! Check out more activities with real snow.
Get Your Free Winter Sensory Play Guide
This free winter sensory guide will add a little sensory play to your day this season!
How to Make a Winter Ice Castle Sensory Bin
Supplies:
- Deep Tray
- White Kinetic Sand
- Small Evergreen Trees
- Peg People
- Castle Building Blocks
- Pine Cones
Sensory Bin Set Up:
STEP 1: Fill the tray with kinetic sand.
Check out our DIY kinetic sand recipe to make your own kinetic sand.
STEP 2: Add evergreen trees, peg people, and building blocks to the kinetic sand.
STEP 3: Use the building blocks to build an ‘ice castle’. Have fun building and pretending with this winter sensory bin!
More Sensory Bin Ideas For Preschoolers
Explore more fun winter sensory bins and Christmas sensory bins.
- Make a Space Sensory Bin with galactic-colored rice, glow-in-the-dark stars, and mini astronauts.
- Dinosaur Volcano Sensory Bin complete with erupting ‘lava’ made from a simple baking soda and vinegar reaction!
- Dive into a simple Icy Ocean Sensory Bin or this squishy blue Ocean Sensory Bin.
- Explore a Ice Cream Sensory Bin filled with colorful scoops, sprinkles, and imaginative textures.
More Fun Winter Activities for Preschoolers
We have even more activities with winter themes for kids of all ages to enjoy, from younger kids to older children!
Explore winter science experiments, build winter LEGO ideas, make winter crafts, play with winter slime and more.
- Play Winter Bingo with free printable bingo cards.
- Explore the fascinating world of penguins.
- Make this fun polar bear craft.
- Play with winter playdough.
- Enjoy snowflake painting.
- Learn colors with winter mittens.
- Try snow painting.
- Make a winter handprint art activity.
Printable Preschool Winter Pack
Perfect for 3-to 6-year-olds in a preschool classroom, learning center, or home. Easy to set up and use with one kiddo or a classroom. This themed pack includes a book and supply list to help you easily set up the activities.
⭐️ Tip: Grab the Preschool Themes Growing Bundle and save money! ⭐️
Activities Include:
- Flip Books
- Dot Mittens
- Sensory Bin
- Sequencing
- Geoboard Templates
- Writing Center
- Tracing Cards
- Board Game
- Cover Up Game
- Matching Game
- Puzzles
- Playdough Mats
