What is sensory activity for preschoolers?

Sensory play is any activity that stimulates our senses – touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste . It helps children interact with and make sense of the world that surrounds them.

What happens if you freeze water beads?

Freezing Orbeez will cause them to shrink and become brittle . If they are frozen for a long period of time, the beads may become damaged and may not be able to absorb water again.

What is an example of a sensory activity?

Kids can experience several senses at a time with a sensory bin or sensory play recipe. For example, imagine a bin of brightly colored rainbow rice: touch the loose grains against the skin, see the vivid colors as they mix together, and hear the sound of sprinkling over a plastic container or shaken in a plastic egg!

What are the 5 sensory play?

Introducing preschoolers to the concept of the five senses at an early age is not only fun but also immensely beneficial for their cognitive and sensory development. Understanding the five senses – sight, touch, taste, smell, and sound – helps children make sense of the world around them.

Sensory Activity for Preschoolers: Free the Frozen Beads! (2024)

Are you ready for the cold!? Me neither. The negative temperatures are finally here though, so I figure it’s time to embrace the cold with… a frozen sensory activity for preschoolers!

This activity is a variation of a sensory activity from Play into Kindergarten Readiness, my preschool program. In Play into Kindergarten Readiness, we explore all sorts of different sensory activities, but one in particular—called Free the Frozen Toys—is always a hit with my little ones.

Since little Norah absolutely LOVES making bracelets and necklaces lately, I thought we would switch it up and try freezing some beads this time instead. So today, I bring you: Free the Frozen Beads!

And let me tell you, this sensory activity was just brimming with learning opportunities!

Just before we get into it, you’ll want to grab thisSensory Bins 101 freebie. It is filled with sensory bin inspiration as well as tips and tricks to make sensory play a success—and less messy! Get your copy right here:

A Frozen Sensory Activity for Preschoolers

Alright, let’s get into the sensory fun!

A quick heads up: you will have to prep for this one in advance to give the water time to freeze. So start the day before you want to enjoy the activity and you’ll be golden.

Supplies

For this frozen sensory activity, you will need:

Water
A freezer
An ice cube tray or some small containers
A cookie sheet or another large dish
An assortment of beads
Bowl of warm water
Paintbrush
Pipecleaners (optional)
Mittens (optional)

Directions

Step 1. Prep by freezing some beads in water.

To prep, you’re going to freeze some beads in water overnight. An ice cube tray works perfectly for this, but since I could not find ours (how we managed to lose an ice cube tray, I will never know!), I used some little containers instead.

The beads will either float or sink, so I find this works best by freezing 1/3 of the cup at a time.

Fill your ice cube tray (or containers) about 1/3 of the way full, sprinkle some beads in, and then pop it in the freezer.

Once that is frozen, fill it about 2/3 of the way full, sprinkle in some more beads, then pop it in the freezer once more.

And once THAT is frozen, you can fill it up completely and sprinkle a few more beads in for good measure.

Step 2. Set up the frozen sensory activity.

Now that your beads are all frozen in water, it’s time for the FUN! Well, almost… a teeeeny tiny bit more setup first.

Grab a cookie sheet or another large dish and pop out your ice cubes onto it. If the ice cubes don’t want to come out, run a bit of warm water over the back of the tray to help loosen them.

Next, fill a small bowl with warm water and put that on the tray along with a paintbrush or two.

Extension Activities

To extend this activity, you could:

Sort the beads by color as they are freed.
Count how many beads there are in each color. Which color has the most beads? The least?
Add some pipecleaners so your little one can make a bracelet—perhaps they will make a pattern!

You will be practicing color recognition, counting, one-to-one correspondence, fine motor skills, creativity, patterning, and building vocabulary all along the way.

Now THAT’S a learning-filled sensory activity if I do say so myself!

But for your little one, they’ll just know that they’re having fun playing (and that spinning ice cubes is AWESOME).

If you want even more activity ideas for your preschooler—engaging, fun, and planned for you day-by-day—you’ll want to check out Play into Kindergarten Readiness!The preschool curriculum covers all core preschool skills in ONE 20-minute activity a day.