sensory dough Archives

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.

Call it cola, soda, pop…what have you…we are playing with it! This sensory dough is no-bake and very cool to play with.

We are joining the the 12 months of sensory dough bloggers to bring you a No-Bake play dough recipe this month. You can see TONS of fabulous ideas from these bloggers for all kinds of sensory doughs. They’ve been mixing up dough for sensory fun all year long and you will definitely want to check them out.

Now it’s true that we love mixing up play dough and creating all kinds of concoctions. Crayon play dough, anyone? This month, September brings you no-bake play dough in the sensory dough series and we were more than happy to join in on the fun! We made Cola Play Dough!

No bake play dough recipe:

We started with just a few ingredients. This no-bake recipe is easy, I promise! Flour, salt, cola. And that’s it.

Measure out 1 1/4 cups flour. Stir in 2 Tbsp salt. Make a small well in the center of the flour mixture. Pour in 1/2 cup soda. Watch the bubbles.

Stir the mixture until the dough starts to pull together. Then, plop the dough onto a counter or floured surface and knead, knead, knead.

This is such a fun sensory experience for the kids (and mom). The scent of the soda really is noticeable while mixing the dough up.

If your dough is too sticky, add a little more flour until it no longer sticks to your hands.

This dough will last a few weeks in a closed plastic container or plastic bag pouch. You will need to add a bit more flour the longer it sits. It seems to get stickier the longer it sits.