Learn how to make an Ice Hearts Sensory Bin for your kids this Valentine’s day. This hands-on activity is fantastic fun to play with but is also packed full of learning opportunities. Toddlers and preschoolers will love playing around with the different temperatures while they learn math, social skills and more.
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More Valentine’s Themed Sensory Play Ideas
There’s nothing like an easy sensory activity to make for a happy Valentine’s day with your kids. Here are some of my favorite themed sensory bin ideas that are perfect for toddlers and preschoolers to play with this February.
- 6 Valentine’s Day Sensory Bottles
- Valentines Yarn Sensory Bin
- Valentines Pom Pom Sensory Bin
- Valentine’s Sensory Bin with Water Beads
- Valentine’s Sensory Box
Materials Needed
- A large plastic tub
- Water
- Red or pink paint or food coloring
- Heart shaped mold
- Craft flowers
- Toy Butterflies
- Sensory Bin tools
How to Make an Ice Hearts Sensory Bin
1. Make the pink water
There are a few different ways to make your colored water. I mixed in a bit of pink and red acrylic paint with some water and gave it a good mix. However I think that using some food coloring would work beautifully too.
2. Pour water into heart shaped ice molds.
I used a heart shaped silicone mold to make my frozen hearts, however any kind of ice cube tray would work for this activity. It all depends on if you want to make your ice heart shaped or not.
3. Freeze overnight
Place your ice cube tray in the freezer overnight until the colored water is set.
4. Fill the tub with water, flowers, butterflies and ice hearts
Fill the large container with water, then place the butterflies, flowers and ice hearts on top to make a sweet Valentine’s day sensory bin. Include all of your sensory bin tools, such as cups, spoons and bowls, and you’re all ready to play.
You’ll find that as the ice hearts melt, the color will seep into the rest of the water in the container. If you want to speed up this process, you can always use warm water in your tub instead of cold.
Different Ways to Play with the Valentine’s Ice Sensory Bin
1. Scoop and pour
Learning to use spoons and cups is an essential life skill that young children need to master. Let them practice scooping and pouring as they play. This is a fun way for them to develop important fine motor skills that they’ll need in everyday life.
2. Patterns
Use the flowers and butterflies to make patterns, this is a great way to introduce younger children to some simple math concepts.
We played around with simple AB and ABB patterns, but if you have older children you can add in more small items to your sensory table and come up with more complex patterns to explore.
3. Sorting and grouping
This is another simple math activity for young kids. Sort the items into their groups, ie butterflies, hearts and flowers.
If you have flowers of different sizes, you can also sort them into big, medium and small groupings instead.
4. Making pictures
Use the small parts to make a picture, my little girls arranged the hearts and flowers into a smiling face.
You can also use this fun idea to make shapes. Young toddlers will have so much fun making triangles, squares or circles with their ice cubes.
5. Transferring hearts
Experiment with different tools to transfer the hearts from one container to another. Fine motor tools such as tongs or an eye dropper for the water, are all an effective way to help strengthen little hands and fingers.
6. Ice heart soup
Open up your own restaurant and serve your customers Ice Soup. Dramatic play is an extra fun way to teach your children social skills, money sense and give them an opportunity to use their imagination.
Are you going to make this Ice Hearts Sensory Bin for your kids?
Don’t forget to pin the idea for later.
Over 90+ pages of Valentine’s day themed play based learning activities and craft templates. Perfect for preschool and kindergarten.
