Snow Sensory Tub

I am so excited to be typing this blog post from my couch in front of the cozy fire--it's an Alabama SNOW DAY!  Which basically means, they shut the whole state down and you can't find bread or milk in ANY store, anywhere.  P.S. It's around 10 a.m. and I still haven't seen a snowflake.  (I'm not complaining.  Although this Southern girl sure would love to see a little bit of snow!)

Well, since we hardly ever get real snow here, I wanted to bring a little bit of "snow" into the classroom in a creative way--by using a sensory tub!  I added a sensory tub to my classroom last year, and the kids LOVE it.  I bought my tub at Target (just a large storage bin with a snap on lid)--and I added two bags of cotton balls, some snowman erasers, and a few clear pebbles for the "ice".  

I created 5 literacy and 5 math activities that can be used with the snow tub, or even WITHOUT the tub!  You can check it out by clicking the picture below--it will be on SALE today to celebrate my little snow day away from school!  :)

I added the snow sensory tub to our "Reading Restaurant" station.   This past week, my students worked on rhyming skills with the rhyming snowballs, and next week they will work on sight words by playing a game using the animal and snowman cards inside the tub.   

For math, I plan on using the activities in my Snow Sensory Tub packet without the tub--I wanted to place them in separate bins, so they can rotate through the activities:  

Sort & Tally

We are working on tallying, so I made a mini snow tub using a small shoebox bin.  I added craft sticks, ribbon, cotton balls, buttons, and paper carrots.  

Chilly Cover Up

This is a basic addition dice game.  I added itty bitty dice to make it a little more special!  You could play with cotton balls, but I used snowman erasers.  I may also change this game up a little bit by playing with snap cubes for a game of "bump".  

Even and Odd Snowballs

Players choose whether they will be the even bucket or the odd.  They flip a card to reveal a number, and if the number is one that goes with their bucket choice (they are the odd bucket and flip a 1) then they get to grab a snowball to add to their bucket.  The first player to fill their bucket first is the winner.

Snowball Measurement

We are beginning our nonstandard measurement unit next week!  This is a fun little activity to measure with "snowballs" (or cotton balls).  

Hoping for snow real snow today! Wait, I think it might actually be sleeting right now.  I gotta go--I have two excited little kiddos here!  :)