Winter Penguin Sensory Bin

We absolutely love indoor winter activities for kids on cold, snowy days. Have you checked out our 15 snow day crafts, winter shred animals, or our yarn lacing penguin craft? Below, we are showing you how to set up a simple penguin sensory bin.

blue sand in a tub with magnetic blocks, penguins, and a plumbing tube slide

Penguin sensory bin

I created this winter penguin sensory bin for the tubes and tunnels unit in my preschool classroom. The kids absolutely love using the different materials in a variety of ways, which I’ll show you below.

What you need

Miniature penguin figures
Blue sand
Magnetic blocks
Plumbing tubes

gather a tub, blue sand, penguins, magnetic blocks, a plumbing tubes for a penguin sensory bin

Instructions

The instructions are simple: let them play.

Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Winter math activity

This winter math activity also uses fine motor skills. Have the children stack magnetic blocks and see how many penguins can fit on top. The most we got was four, making it the perfect preschool activity for younger students learning to count and quantify.

$winter math activity for preschoolers using magnetic blocks and penguins$

Penguin footprint

Make animal tracks in the sand. Use a magnetic block to smooth the sand and then make penguin footprints. Can they count how many? Can they make them come in and out of habitats?

penguin footprint in a winter sensory bin using blue sand

Penguin habitats

Use a variety of magnetic blocks to make different habitats for your penguins.

penguin habitat activity for preschoolers using magnetic blocks and sand

Penguin slide

As I mentioned above, this activity was for our tubes and tunnels unit, so what could be more fun than penguins shooting down a tube slide? Add as many tubes as you like, but beware that the heavier it is, the more likely it is to fall out of the sensory bin.

winter sensory bin with a tube slide, magnetic blocks, blue sand, and penguins.