Frozen Sensory Bin

How to make a Disney’s FROZEN sensory bin using Polly Pockets, white rice and small, household items for play and learning.

If you have Elsa and Anna fans at your house, you have to check out our Frozen activities for toddlers and preschoolers.  Today, I’m sharing our Frozen sensory bin!  It’s so easy to pull together using simple items you already have around your home!

Are your kids as crazy about Disney’s FROZEN movie as my daycare hooligans are?

As it happens, I have only girls in my daycare this year, so you can just imagine how much Frozen-talk, Frozen-singing and Frozen-play we have going on here these days.

Because the girls are so into the movie at the moment, I thought it would be fun to do some Frozen-themed activities here over the next few weeks.  The hooligans love sensory bins, so we kicked things off with this simple Frozen sensory bin today.

This activity was a huge hit with the girls, and it was so easy to set up.  I simply pulled out a few Christmas decorations, and raided my craft room and toy room for all things silver, blue and purple.  I think I was as excited as the girls were when I presented it to them!

For our Frozen Sensory Bin, I used:

• shallow storage container (a dollar store kitty-litter bin works well too)
• white rice (you could colour it blue with this easy process)
• two 10 inch square mirrored tiles (dollar store), or cardboard covered with foil
• plastic “crystals” (dollar store)
• flat glass vase fillers (dollar store)
• assorted ribbons
• plastic snowflakes (Xmas tree decorations)
• plastic, glittery reindeer (tree decoration)
• Tinsel Garland (cut into 2 inch pieces)
• cotton balls
• Polly Pockets (and other assorted princess figures)
• glass jars, foil tart tins, spoons, scoops

Setting up the Sensory Bin:

I have two mirrored tiles that we use for our dry erase activities, so I began by setting those in the bottom of my storage container.

I poured my rice around the inside edges of the bin, leaving the mirrors (the ice) exposed in the middle of the bin.

Then I piled cotton balls in all 4 corners of the bin.

I leaned the plastic snowflakes and reindeer up against the edges of the bin, and scattered the plastic crystals and glass beads all around.

Then I curled some blue and purple ribbons in and around everything.

I finished by adding a few Polly Pocket characters to the bin, wiggling them into the rice so they would stand up.

A few glass jars, silver spoons, plastic scoops and some tart tins and we were good to go!

While I was gathering the materials and assembling the bin, the girls were playing in the toy room, keeping a close eye on what I was up to.  When I finally told them everything was ready, they couldn’t wait to get their hands into it!

They dug in, and sifted through the rice, scooping and pouring it into the jars and tins.  They sorted the beads and crystals,

and they examined all of the goodies in the bin.

There was lots of Elsa and Anna pretend play too.  They easily spent a half hour exploring and playing in the bin.

They “washed” Anna and Elsa with the cotton balls and the small beads became food for Sven.

Of course after a few minutes, the bin looked like a winter hurricane had hit it, but that’s only natural.  With all the exploration going on, I never expect a sensory bin to remain orderly for long.  It’s important that the children explore an activity like this freely.  Keeping things in place is never an expectation.

When they’re finished playing, it only takes a few minutes for me to set everything up again for next time.  I have a feeling there will be many “next times” with our Frozen Sensory Bin!

Stay tuned because we have another Frozen activity coming up next week!  Here’s a sneak peek!  And nope, it’s not a sensory bin!

More Frozen Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers:

Melting Elsa’s Frozen Hands (salt and ice experiment)

Frozen Clean Mud

Frozen Fractals Ice and Water Play

Frozen Fractals Ice Sculptures

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Jackie Currie

Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.