Make this Fun Winter Sensory Activity Bin with Yowie Wild Water Collectibles

Yowie Wild Water Winter Sensory Activity Bin

Creating a winter sensory activity bin puts exploration of the senses, which is crucial for brain development, literally at your fingertips. And it’s just plain fun too! But what is a sensory activity bin? A sensory activity bin is a large container filled with objects and materials intended to stimulate the senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell and sometimes even taste through sensory play. These bins not only engage the senses but also encourage imagination, investigation, and learning. 

Sensory activity bins aid the following:

  • Tactile learning, which is the hands-on type of learning. It’s learning by touching and doing things
  • Life skill development, including spooning, scooping and pouring
  • Math-related skill development like spatial awareness, estimating capacity, measuring and sorting
  • Building fine motor skills, including picking up items of various sizes and developing hand-eye coordination
  • Pretend play as children use their imaginations to engage in ways that excite and entertain them

Follow this simple tutorial to make a winter sensory activity bin, complete with fun Yowie Wild Water collectibles, for a child in your life.

Yowie Wild Water Winter Sensory Play Bin Tutorial

Created by Yowie fan, Rachel Reid. Follow Rachel and Yowie or Yowie Australia on Instagram for more family-friendly activities.

Creating a variety of sensory bins can be fun when you set up different environments using everything from dirt to water to kitchen pantry ingredients. Add some Yowie collectible animals to expand the sensory learning experience.

Yowie Wild Water Winter Sensory Play Bin Materials

  • Homemade Play-Dough (see recipe below)
  • Desiccated Coconut
  • White pebbles
  • A big container for the sensory bin
  • This tutorial uses a large metal bucket
  • Yowie Wild Water animals

Yowie Wild Water are available in stores across the nation and on Amazon with free shipping for Prime members!


STEP ONE

To start, you’ll want to create a homemade play-dough to use as the foundation for the “water.” 

Homemade Play-Dough Recipe

  • 2 cups plain flour
  • 4 tablespoons cream of tartar
  • 1 cup salt
  • 2 cups water
  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • Blue and green food coloring

Simply mix all of the ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat for a few minutes until the mixture thickens. Remove from the pan and let it rest until it is cool enough to handle, and then knead the playdough until you get a nice smooth texture. 


STEP Two

Place the white pebbles across the center of your bin or pail, to create a divider between the “water” and the “snow”.


STEP three

Add the desiccated coconut to serve as the “snow” and the play-dough “water” to each side of the pebbles.


STEP FOUR

Add your Yowie Wild Water collectibles and start having fun!

Yowie Wild Water Winter Sensory Activity Bin


Extend the Fun and Learning with Your Winter Sensory Activity Bin

This activity is just plain fun and will engage children for hours. You can incorporate more learning with these ideas.

First, ask your child to sort their Wild Water collection into animals that live in the water, in the snow or on land, near the water. Then, depending on your child’s age, you can discuss how each animal is suited to live in that particular habitat. For example, the Great Hammerhead Shark lives underwater and prefers the taste of Stingrays.

Yowie Wild Water Winter Sensory Activity Bin


As you are sorting the animals with your child, give them the opportunity to name each animal and read through the leaflet to learn more about those he is interested in.

Yowie Wild Water Winter Sensory Activity Bin

 

Using the play-dough portion of the sensory bin, children can experiment with the unique marks and shapes each animal makes.


This activity is best for children ages two and up.

Toddler Playing with Yowie Winter Sensory Activity Bin


We hope you enjoyed creating and exploring this winter sensory activity bin with your little ones. For even more creative learning opportunities, check out our
fun activities to help children learn about endangered species, where we have shared some excellent resources and games that make learning about animals exciting for kids. They can also sign up to become a Yowie Aqua Guardian

Be sure to share your sensory bin experience (and your favorite photos!) with us on Facebook or Instagram.