These winter sensory bins are a must for one year olds, toddlers, and preschoolers. There is something special about experiencing winter through the eyes of a child…the first snowfall, hot cocoa, festive music, and the excitement of the holidays. Here we have put together winter themed sensory bins to get your toddler excited for all that winter has to offer.

snowy chickpeas bin

The base for this sensory bin is dried chickpeas. First, dye the dried chickpeas by shaking paint and chickpeas in a ziplock baggie. For this bin we did light blue, dark blue, and white. We also add in glitter to make them sparkle like snow. Next, add in snowmen, snowy trees, wintery mini erasers, etc. Make some mini paper snowflakes if you are struggling to find wintery toys and/or increase the contrast in textures. Let them play, scoop, move items into smaller containers, count, sort, etc.

rice sensory bin

This sensory bin has rice as its base and cool wintery colors that your little ones will love. First, dye the rice blue and place in a bin. Next, add in tools like small plastic tweezers, scoops, magnifying glass, etc. Finally, add in objects used in the snowy chickpeas bin like the snowmen and snowy trees along with toy penguins, polar bears, or other wintery animals. Have your littles sort out the animals and then place by smallest to largest. If you have a book about these animals, follow this sensory bin with a snuggly reading time.

ice sensory bin

Animal rescue! First, add water and winter animals to a muffin tin and freeze overnight. Then, have kids rescue the animals. They can melt the ice with hot or warm water and a syringe and use toy hammers to break apart the ice. 

snow sensory bin

Grab some snow from outside and put it in measuring cups, bowls, spoons etc and let the littles play! This sensory bin will turn into a watery one as the snow melts which extends the experience. Place a towel or a larger plastic tub underneath the containers to keep everything dry! Note: If you don’t have snow, make your own! Click here for recipe.