Frozen Snow Dough

January 19, 2024January 12, 2015 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

Today I have a fun sensory play experience for kids who need a tactile challenge, or just want some hands-on sensory play! This indoor snow is a fake snow recipe that is easy to make, but has TONS of developmental benefits. The pretend snow recipe is so easy (just 3 ingredients in this snow dough!) that kids can make it too. Let’s play! This is a winter sensory bin idea that kids love!

There are so many benefits to playing with Sensory dough, and using sensory materials like play dough with add-ins is one of our favorite ways to play. We love concocting play dough, salt dough, and sensory doughs of all kinds. This pretend play activity has another theme, too: Frozen!

Sensory snow dough is fun for pretend play and indoor snow fun!

What is snow dough?

Snow dough is any “fake snow” type of sensory material. There are a lot of snow recipes out there. We’ve made a different version of sensory snowy dough before, using shaving cream. But, you could use a variety of materials to get a just-right fake snow material.

Pretend snow is a great way to encourage pretend play with a sensory twist when the weather is too cold to get outside to play in the real snow…or if you’re in an area without wintery cold or snow.

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Frozen Snow Recipe

Frozen snow dough for sensory play using characters from Frozen

I have a couple of Frozen obsessed little girls. So, when I told them we were making a Frozen themed activity, there were shouts of excitement. (And a few rounds of “Let it Snowwwwww!”

3 ingredient snow dough recipe for sensory snow play

How to make Fake Snow for sensory Play:

This is a seriously easy sensory recipe to put together. I had the idea for this recipe when I thought of my sugar cookies. To make the royal icing, I use my KitchenAid mixer and mix mix mix for a long time.

This fake snow recipe calls for a just three ingredients:

3 cups baby powder
1/2 cup warm water
2 Tbsp vegetable oil

To make the fake snow:

Slowly scoop or pour the baby powder into the mixing bowl. Add the warm water one tablespoon at a time with the mixer running on it’s lowest setting. Start stirring with your spoon to get the powder and water mixture started.

The powder will puff up in the air if you turn the mixer up too high, too quickly. I draped a dish towel over the mixer because even on the lowest setting, the powder clouded up a bit.

After all of the water is mixed in, add the two tablespoons of oil. At this point, the mixture should be a crumbly texture.

Turn the mixer speed up to a medium speed and let the mixer run for 4-5 minutes. You could definitely mix this dough by hand, but the mixer added more fluff to the sensory dough.

Make snow dough in a mixer or you could mix by hand.

And, we’re ready for some sensory play!

Snow dough recipe using baby powder and shaving cream

I poured the sensory material on a low tray and added glass gems, clear marbles, and blue glass gems to get it ready for the Frozen theme sensory play.

tactile sensory play with fake snow and glass gems

Snow dough pretend play activity for kids

My girls got into the Frozen theme pretend play right away.

This dough is mold-able and you can form little snowballs or even build a snowman.

This fake snow recipe is a fun indoor snow activity for kids

Build snow castles with fake indoor snow

We built Elsa’s ice castle and decorated it with the gems.

The two sisters that live in my house pulled out their Frozen figures sisters and had SO much fun playing Frozen. The pretend play that happened in this small world was so much fun to watch!

Fake snow dough recipe and use glass gems for fine motor skills.

This pretend play snow was the perfect sensory play activity for when there’s a wintery blizzard outside.

When we were finished with our pretend play, we packaged up the snow dough and delivered it to friends who are also huge Frozen fans. Pass on the sensory play!

Snow Sensory Bin

This fake snow is the perfect base for a snow sensory bin, with other themes, too. Use the cards and sight words in the Winter Fine Motor Kit, to challenge kids in scissor skills, reading, sight words, sequencing, storytelling, and visual perceptual skills. The Winter Fine Motor Kit has simple and complex shapes with all kinds of Winter themed images including mittens, arctic animals, penguins, snowflakes, and more. These shapes and words can be hidden in the fake snow sensory bin for kids to hide, find, and hide again.

To up the fine motor work further, add tongs, scoops, small bowls and bins, and more.

For more ways to work on scissor skills, along with all of the fine motor skills needed for scissor use and handwriting, try the Winter Fine Motor Kit. It’s loaded with cutting activities, lacing cards, coloring, clip activities, fine motor art, and fun ways to help children develop pre-writing hand strength, dexterity, and motor skills.

Use the fine motor activities, lacing cards, toothpick art, and crafts in the Winter Fine Motor Kit. It’s a 100 page packet with all winter themes, and you’ll find winter fun there!

More Indoor snow recipes

Fizzy, Frozen Snow Dough | It’s A Long Story
How to Make Snow Dough (Taste Safe) | Powerful Mothering
Frozen Inspired Snow Dough | Simple Play Ideas
Snow Dough Science | Raising Lifelong Learners
Edible Snow Dough | Wildflower Ramblings
Rubbery Marshmallow Play Dough | Therapy Fun Zone
Music Inspired Snow Dough | Witty Hoots
Snow Dough Frozen Inspired Small World | Preschool Inspirations
Sparkly Taste Safe Snow Dough for Toddler & Preschool Sensory Play | Bare Feet on the Dashboard
Experimenting with Snow Dough | Lemon Lime Adventures
Arctic Small World Snow Dough | Best Toys 4 Toddlers
Book-Inspired Snow Dough Sensory Play | Stir the Wonder

Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

Baby Safe Water Bead Sensory Play

March 21, 2022January 9, 2015 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

We are big fans of sensory play around here. When you’e got younger kids who see the big kids having fun in creative play, they want to get in on the action too! Now, I’m not saying that my 7 month old want so jump in the sensory bins…Ok, yes she does…but she wants to grab everything and explore and learn her environment. I put this sensory baby play activity together just for her in a baby-safe way so that she could explore a little sensory play. Baby-style!

Baby play is fun to put together and it’s even more fun to watch little ones explore and learn from new experiences. This water bead activity was no exception!

This sensory play activity is perfect for babies! Baby-safe water bead play

Baby Sensory Play Idea

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This activity was so easy to throw together. We had colorful water beads left over from another activity and I put them into a gallon size freezer bag. Seal it up tightly and you are ready to play.
My daughter is 7 months old and loved exploring this water bead sensory experience. She grabbed the bag, poked the beads, pulled the bag…it was really fun watching her play!

When she got a little bored of the bag, I added a bit of water to the plastic bag. It became a whole new sensory experience for her. The colors seemed to pop more and they floated around a bit. I put her on the floor with the water beads and she started exploring all over again.

Safety Note: This is an activity that requires adult supervision. Never leave your small child alone while playing with water beads. You may want to seal up the bag with strong tape in order to further provide a safety measure. All activities that you see on this site are supervised. Be sure to use your judgement when doing these activities with your child. The OT Toolbox LLC is not at risk for any activity that you see on this web site. By reading this blog and doing the activities you see here, you are agreeing to this statement.

Looking for more baby play ideas? Try these:

Blue-Themed Sensory Play for Babies and Toddlers

Fine Motor Play with Tissue Paper

Baby Brain Building
Packing for a Beach Vacation with Baby

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Stamp Craft

July 21, 2019January 8, 2015 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

We are big fans of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in our house. We’ve done a TMNT party and a couple of ninja turtle crafts. This stamp art craft is an easy one to add to your Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fan’s art collection!

Your teenage mutant ninja turtle fan will love this art craft!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Stamp Art Craft

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This is an easy paper roll stamp art craft. Grab a cardboard tube from the recycle bin. Give it a little bend to make it a nice turtle-y oval shape. Pour some green paint on a paper plate. Stamp the paper tube into the paint and press onto white paper.

Stamp four green turtle heads onto the paper. Use

blue paint,
orange paint,
red paint,
and purple paint to swipe a quick mask stripe across the turtle’s faces.

Glue a pair of wiggly eyes on each ninja turtle face. (We received ours from www.craftprojectideas.com). Your Ninja Turtle craft is done! I love how easy this craft is. My Little Guy (age 5) is not always too keen on craft time, so when it’s a Ninja Turtle craft and quick and easy, it’s a sure hit with him.

More Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle craft you may be interested in:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle egg carton craft | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Cupcake Liner Craft

Valentine’s Day Tea

February 4, 2020January 7, 2015 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

We have been loving tea recently in our house. After Christmas, the whole house came down with a bug, and sore throats and coughs hit us all. A cup of tea (decaffeinated for the kids!) with a bit of honey helped a lot. With Valentine’s Day coming up, this Beau-TEA-ful tea bag is an easy way to spread cheer and smiles to loved ones! We whipped these up in a few minutes. And enjoyed beau-tea-ful tea for our sore throats.

Make Valentines Day tea bags for some one you love!

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Valentine’s Day Tea

We started with pink and red assorted cardstock and snipped quick little hearts. I wrote “Beau-TEA-ful” on the hearts. Baby Girl helped me pull the paper labels off of tea bags. We taped the hearts on quickly, and we were done! So easy!

This would make a great class gift idea for Valentine’s Day…or a way to spread love and a smile to someone you love!

We’ll be sipping beau-tea-ful tea for a while around here!

Need a few Valentine’s Day activities to go along with your tea? Try these:

Valentine’s Day Sparkle craft

Valentine’s Day Goop Painting

Valentine’s Day Snacks for Kids

Easy Shapes Big Rig Craft

July 21, 2019January 6, 2015 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

We love easy kids crafts. When you can add learning and crafting, it’s just bonus! We’ve made a few other easy shape vehicle crafts before: Our fire truck craft, school bus craft, and Backhoe craft were all big hits in our house. We continued the easy shapes learning with a Big Rig Truck craft. This one was easy and fun!

This Big Rig Truck craft uses easy shapes and is fun for your little vehicle lover!

Easy Shapes Big Rig Truck Craft

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We used a few materials to make this big rig craft. We used a sheet of

orange cardstock, black cardstock
, and a piece of white printer paper. This craft was so easy to throw together. I cut out the simple shapes to build the Big Rig truck, but older kids could do the cutting for you and work on scissor skills at the same time.

The nice thing about using card stock is that it is more resistive and slows down scissor snipping. It’s a great resistance for new scissor users to practice with while working on line accuracy and controlled scissor use.

For this truck craft, you need three black circles, three smaller circles, a rectangle, a square, and a small white square.

This craft was almost like a puzzle and a little brain booster for Little Guy to build. I showed him the truck shape and then took apart the pieces. He had to recall the image and build the truck on his own. Younger kids would require more verbal cues or a visual example of the truck craft.

This simple craft was a big hit and a fun continuation of other easy shape vehicles we’ve crafted. See them all here:

School Bus craft | Fire Truck craft | Backhoe craft

Bottle Cap Math Activity

March 14, 2022January 5, 2015 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

This bottle cap math activity doubles as a fine motor activity to develop precision, in hand manipulation skills AND counting by tens using bottle cap math!

Bottle Cap Math

Big Sister is working her way through first grade and loves when she has math homework. She works hard at math but when she “gets” the concept, she rocks it. Sometimes, we need to work a bit on some of the math ideas. (I think she gets her math skills from her mom). So, when we get worksheets for math homework, I like to put together hands-on activities to build on the concepts she learns at school.

The extra work helps a lot and it is more fun for her to practice math ideas with manipulatives rather than worksheets. We practiced 10 frames activities with bottle caps one day and worked on a few first grade math ideas that Big Sister’s been practicing in worksheet form.

This was fun!

First Grade Math Activity

I love using things like bottle caps in OT kids crafts and activities. It’s something that you’ve got around the house, and it’s free! You can’t really find an item that is more perfect for sorting, letter play, art, or crafting!

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I pulled out our stash of bottle caps, but only grabbed a couple of colors. I wanted this activity to focus on what was IN the bottle caps vs. the color of the cap.

We used some (Amazon affiliate link) dried chickpeas and a few other dried items to fit right into the caps. I had Big Sister count out the chickpeas into piles of 10. We popped them right into the caps.

Big Sister counted the bottle caps in groups of tens and I added a handful of chickpeas to the side. She then had to figure out the total number, counting the tens and the ones.

Counting out the 10 items is a great beginning math concept for first graders. She’s counting the manipulatives with one-to-one correspondence and placing them into groups of tens. We practiced counting by tens as we moved the bottle caps around on the paper.

I also pulled out a bag of dried black beans and she counted out groups of tens of those, too.

Big Sister counted by tens to add the caps with chick peas and the caps with black beans to get a total number of items. When we had 10 bottle caps of 10 items, we stacked them into a pile to make a hundreds column.

I pulled out the dried elbow macaroni and we added these lids, too.

Four tens and one ones makes 41. She really got into this kind of math practice.

When she got tired of the math practice, we pulled out the animal figures and pretended to feed the animals.

Let us know if you do this math activity! We love to hear from our readers.

Looking for more first grade math activities? Try these:

skip counting | number order

130 Sensory Play Ideas

July 11, 2019January 3, 2015 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

Looking for a few fresh sensory play ideas? These sensory activities are full of fun and creative ways to explore the senses while learning through taste, touch, sight, smell, the auditory sense, and even proprioception and vestibular sensory systems! One of our favorite ways to explore and learn with kids is through sensory play. There’s a reason why…when we encourage our kids to participate in sensory play, they learn! Getting kids involved in messy sensory play, sensory play dough, sensory tables, or slime sensory play encourages gross and fine motor skills, motor planning, and so much more.
Check out all of the sensory play ideas here…You will see edible sensory play and sensory activities that promote learning. There are just SO many sensory activities that kids love! Below, you will find some of the top sensory play ideas that we’ve shared here on The OT Toolbox, in different collections over the years. In fact, there are over 130 different sensory play ideas that promote learning and sensory challenges through various sensory experiences!

Sensory Play Ideas that kids will love

130 sensory play ideas for learning and messy, sensory fun with kids.

130 Sensory Play and Learning Ideas

Check out these sensory bins and sensory play ideas that can be used in learning and play:

Use these sensory bin ideas to help kids explore the senses with sensory play ideas that will help with sensory challenges or learning through sensory play.

These 60+ Sensory Bin Ideas are great for exploring sensory experiences through play. Sensory bins can be fit to any theme based on the child’s interests and sensory learning experiences.

Kids will love these messy sensory play ideas that challenge the tactile sense and are fun!

These 8 Messy Sensory Play Ideas are awesome to use as a sensory challenge or to help kids play and experience the tactile sensory input they need to develop a functioning tactile sensory system. Use these sensory play ideas and experiences in therapy or at home.

These sensory art activities are messy sensory play ideas and ones that incorporate the senses in art and creative experiences!

These 18 Creative Art Projects incorporate a variety of senses in sensory art play! They are perfect for using in art lessons or in creative fun at home or in the occupational therapy clinic…while working on the underlying skills kids need!

These olfactory sense of smell sensory play activities and sensory play ideas use scented sensory play to calm or stimulate the senses!

These 9 Olfactory Sense of Smell Activities incorporate the sense of smell in play and sensory input. Use them to address the calming or stimulating experiences kids need through sensory play.

Try these sensory recipes that promote messy sensory play experiences to challenge and promote tactile sensory play!

These 14 Recipes for Sensory Play promote messy sensory play experiences through goop, play dough, edible sensory play ideas, and other sensory ideas that encourage playing through the senses!

Use these visual scanning activities to help kids promote the sense of vision and its use in functional skills, perfect for visual scanning exercises through sensory activities in occupational therapy.

These 7 Visual Scanning Activities are perfect for addressing the skills kids need for reading, writing, puzzles, and so many other functional skills using the sense of vision.

Try these sensory bin ideas to encourage sensory play in any theme!

Try these 9 Easy Sensory Bin ideas to incorporate sensory play in a variety of ways. Sensory bins are so versatile and can address any learning need and any interest!

These summer sensory experiences are outdoor sensory fun that kids will love including messy sensory play!

These 10 Summer Sensory Play Ideas will be a huge hit over the summer months or anytime that outdoor sensory play is needed. Use the summer sensory ideas as a way to encourage messy sensory play and tactile and proprioceptive sensory experiences that kids will love!

Need more sensory play ideas? Try some of these favorites:

Valentine’s Day Sensory Bottle

Vestibular Frisbee

Frozen Proprioception Sensory Dough

Proprioception Sensory Ice Smash

Baby Sensory Play Ideas

Sensory Gardening with Kids

Sensory Shaker Bottles for Baby

How to Make a Sensory Bottle

Best Dough Recipes

July 11, 2019January 2, 2015 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

When we looked at our top ten posts of 2014, we noticed a funny thing. A few of our most popular blog posts were homemade play dough recipes. You must like play dough as much as we do! We had to put together a collection of our top play dough recipes of the year to put them all in one place and to have little look back at the year of fun we’ve had with homemade play dough!

Creative and fun homemade play dough recipes. These are the best for kids!

The best homemade play dough recipes:

Our most popular post this year was our Make crayon play dough recipe and it was by far our favorite. If you haven’t tried this recipe yet, it’s a must-make! This dough is smooth, soft, and very bold in color. We’ve got plans to make a few more versions of this dough in 2015, so stay tuned!

Going through our list of play doughs from this year, these were most popular: