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January 20, 2013

Squishy Snow Sensory Activity for Preschool Kids

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We love fun activities for preschool kids and toddlers at our house so it makes sense that this squishy snow sensory activity is a big hit during the winter!

Squishy snow, also called clean mud, is easy to make, fun to play with, and NOT a mess to clean up.  All you need is a bar of Ivory soap, a roll of toilet paper, and 1-1.5 cups of hot water.

Ingredients for Squishy SnowI set out a large plastic bin and let the kids rip up the roll of toilet paper into it.  Even making it is fun!

Squishy Snow Ingredients Bar of Ivory Soap

While they were tearing and shredding I grated the bar of soap and heated 1.5 cups of water in the microwave.

Squishy Snow Sensory Material for KidsI mixed the soap with 1 cup of water (to start) and poured it into the bin with the toilet paper.  They used their hands (it was cooler by then) to mix it all together. Normally at this point I would add more of the water until it becomes a smooth, slick consistency, but they wanted to leave it a little drier today so we left it alone.

Clean Mud Snowball ActivityThey spent lots of time playing, squeezing, and experimenting with the squishy snow.  And then had fun making a bunch of snowballs.

Squishy Snow Sensory Material for PreschoolWhich quickly turned into snowmen!

Have you made squishy snow or clean mud before?  Did your preschool kids enjoy it?

It was interesting to see that my 3 year old who does not always enjoy sticky, gooey activities liked it better with less water.  Experiment with the recipe to see what is most fun for your family!

Linking to:

About Megan Sheakoski

Megan is the creator of Coffee Cups and Crayons, a blog full of simple fun and learning. She believes that kids’ activities don’t have to be complicated to be fun and that learning is better with play.

Picasso for Kids: Cubist Portraits
Kindness Challenge: Love the Environment

Comments

  1. Jen Fischer says

    January 20, 2013 at 1:50 pm

    Looks fun, since we have no snow here in SoCal and my boys seem to be obsessed with it, I think we will have to give this a try, if I can just get over the intimidation of grating a bar of soap!

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      January 20, 2013 at 11:36 pm

      It’s so funny that you said that because I think the same thing about grating it even if I’ve done it before! It’s really not bad at all though. I bet you could even do the exploding soap thing in the microwave first!

      Reply
      • Naomi says

        January 21, 2014 at 7:24 pm

        I tried it with the exploding soap method, and it works great!
        I exploded the soap (put a bar of Ivory soap in the microwave for 90 seconds – so cool!) and let the kids play with the exploded soap for a little bit. It very quickly collapsed into powder.
        The resulting soap powder worked great in this snow recipe.

        Reply
        • Megan Sheakoski says

          January 21, 2014 at 10:25 pm

          So much fun! I want to try it again tomorrow now!

          Reply
    • Tracy says

      February 7, 2013 at 11:06 pm

      Use a cheese wheel to grate it (like the cheese grater used at Olive Garden. Super easy that way!

      Reply
      • Megan Sheakoski says

        February 8, 2013 at 5:50 pm

        That would be so fun!!! We’ll have to get one!

        Reply
  2. Gina says

    January 20, 2013 at 6:56 pm

    I bet my son would love making this! He will gladly rip up any type of paper that I ask him too! 🙂

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      January 20, 2013 at 11:49 pm

      You can’t go wrong with ripping up paper! It’s pretty fun to get to unroll the toilet paper too–especially for my 3 year old who gets redirected for trying to do in the bathroom!

      Reply
  3. Mary Catherine says

    January 21, 2013 at 9:16 am

    Thanks for sharing this! 🙂 I’ve made this with my preschool students in the past, and it’s funny to see which children don’t care for tearing up the toilet paper and which kids really get into it! 🙂

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      January 21, 2013 at 9:40 am

      That is so true!!! Thanks for stopping by!

      Reply
      • Sharon Wojslaw says

        November 8, 2014 at 8:39 am

        Can these snowballs be reused or do they dry up?

        Reply
        • Megan Sheakoski says

          November 8, 2014 at 6:04 pm

          They’ll keep in an air tight container for a couple days. You may have to lightly re-wet them if they start to dry out though.

          Reply
  4. Sharla says

    January 22, 2013 at 1:28 am

    What a fantastic idea! I love that they can shape it like snow but it won’t melt and make a mess the same way that bringing snow inside would.

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      January 22, 2013 at 9:53 pm

      Thanks Sharla! It is lots of fun! I definitely made some snow creations myself too. 🙂

      Reply
  5. Rebecca says

    January 26, 2013 at 3:39 am

    That looks so much like snow – what fun!

    Thanks for linking to the Sunday Showcase. I’ve pinned to our board.

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      January 26, 2013 at 4:12 pm

      Thanks so much Rebecca!!!

      Reply
  6. Katie says

    January 31, 2013 at 4:12 pm

    I love this! About how much does this make? I have about 12 students.

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      February 1, 2013 at 8:30 am

      Hi Katie! I would say this is enough for 3, even 4. If you want to make some for your entore class I’d multiply by 4. Have fun!!!

      Reply
  7. UnitedFamily says

    February 1, 2013 at 1:57 pm

    So innovative and cool — especially for little ones who find out door snow fun but too cool and wet. Great idea and would be a great activity for parents and kids together.

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      February 1, 2013 at 2:26 pm

      Very true! I hadn’t thought about that before, but you’re absolutely correct! It’s great for little ones with a cold sensitivity!

      Reply
  8. Julie says

    November 27, 2013 at 5:28 pm

    Thank you!!! MUST try this with my own kids and my kids at church! 🙂

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      November 29, 2013 at 11:52 am

      It is fun!!!

      Reply
  9. Naomi says

    January 21, 2014 at 7:25 pm

    Did this today with the couple of kids who were left after most went home early due to snow. We made it a multi-texture activity by first playing with the dry shredded paper, then adding the soap and water mixture and letting the kids do the mixing. For added fun, we added real snow from outside instead of adding more water – it made it cold, and the texture changed as the snow melted.

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      January 21, 2014 at 10:24 pm

      That is awesome! I am so jealous of your snow!

      Reply
  10. Tara says

    December 18, 2014 at 2:17 pm

    Do you have to use ivory soap or will any type of bar soap do?

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      December 19, 2014 at 9:03 am

      I’ve only used Ivory, so I’m not sure.

      Reply
  11. Tamera Howlett says

    December 10, 2016 at 6:54 am

    OMG…i did try this last year and it was a huge hit with the JumpBunch kids club(2-6yrs) i have here in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. So much so i had to repeat it during the summer camp and still a major hit. Im planning on doing it again this week for the playschool kids. Thank you for this project.

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      December 10, 2016 at 10:34 pm

      Yay!!!! I’m glad they are loving it!!!

      Reply

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