Sensory Snow

SENSORY SNOW!!!!

 

Another day in the house due to the bad weather!  Seems like this has been a LONG winter!!!  My boys are just dying to get outside – and so am I.  The boys need to RUN!  They need the FRESH AIR!  They need DIRT!  Yes, DIRT.  My boys LOVE dirt more than anything.  Sand is a close second.  Making SENSORY SNOW seemed to cure their dirt withdrawal and it might be a perfect snowy day, outside-missing, springtime-longing activity for you too!  Best part, you probably have the ingredients in the house already!

Here’s what you need:

Baking Soda

Shaving cream/gel

Trucks, cups, spoons (anything they can use to play with the “snow”)

The recipe I found for Sensory Snow said to use equal parts baking soda and shaving cream, but I found that you need a lot more baking soda than shaving cream.  I had raspberry shaving gel at home, so that’s what we used.  It did have a bit of a pink hue but the boys didn’t seem to mind. 

 

Start by putting some baking soda in a bowl or Tupperware then slowly add the shaving cream/gel.  Mix it together as you go.  The consistency you get should look flaky but be soft and mushy to the touch.  We took out some trucks, cups and spoons to manipulate our Sensory Snow.  Our play-doh tools also worked well.

 

This activity can get messy – will get messy – so put down a tablecloth or old sheet under your play space and you’ll give yourself an easy clean up. 

I really focused on my 19 month old Michael, during this activity.  He is at a point in his language development where he is combining two words together (“go truck”).  Look for this milestone with your own child between 18-24 months.  I encouraged him to request “more snow” when he ran out and we talked about all the things we did with the snow – “pat snow,” “push snow,” “roll snow,” “scoop snow,” “throw snow,” etc.  Combining an action word with the word “snow,” we were able to talk so much through this experience!  Please note that in the pictures I took, Michael has his pacifier in his mouth.  The SLP in me made sure his pacifier was far away when we were talking through our Sensory Snow experience, but the mom in me had to give it to him when I walked away to get the camera and couldn’t provide my undivided attention to prevent my very good eater from tasting the snow!  If your child is a “nippy lover,” and I’ll admit so far 2 of my 3 boys have been – try to limit it to sleeping as much as you can.  More to come on how pacifiers and sippy cups can affect your child’s speech and language development in later posts!

So what’s SENSORY about the SENSORY SNOW?  This activity really provides two sensory experiences – smell and touch.  The Sensory Snow has an interesting smell because of the shaving cream/gel and the texture is really interesting to the touch.  You wouldn’t expect it to almost melt in your hands the way it does.  Children (and adults!) use their senses to engage in meaningful experiences.  As we talk to them about what they are feeling, seeing, smelling, etc., we work on building language skills specific to their experience. So chat about it during this fun activity!

 

 

My boys had fun with this activity for a good hour, which is amazing for them!  Definitely something we’ll be repeating in the future!  Have a great day!

Love & Language,

Marisa