Ice Cream Themed Sensory Bins

Since it is national ice cream day later this week, I thought it was the perfect time to share my ice cream themed sensory bins with you all! We have been having a great summer playing and enjoying life and these have been some of our favorite sensory bins. We worked on the letter I, counting and sorting numbers to 3, and some good ole’ fashioned play time! Here are my top 5 favorite bins from my Ice Cream Themed Toddler School Unit.

Ice Cream Sprinkles Play

For the next few activities, I filled a dish with rainbow sprinkles. My son loves to run his fingers through sensory bin filler, so I knew the best way to kick off a sensory bin filled with sprinkles was to give him some time for free play. I grabbed this plastic ice cream sand toys set on Amazon that came with plastic ice cream cones and an ice cream scooper. I also grabbed these silicone baking molds to use as ice cream dishes. These were the perfect accompaniments to the sprinkles for a fun ice cream themed sensory play activity!

Ice Cream Letter Sort Sensory Bin

To work on the uppercase and lowercase letter I, I put together an ice cream cone letter sort. I filled a dish with rainbow sprinkles, laminated paper cones, and ice cream scoops. Then, we sorted the cones and scoops from the sensory bin onto the sensory bin mat. It was great practice for my 3 year old to differentiate uppercase and lowercase letter I.

Ice Cream Number Sort Sensory Bin

To work on number recognition, I took the same bin of rainbow sprinkles and added ice cream themed number cards to the sensory bin. I also added 3 “ice cream dishes” to use to sort the number cards into. I added one of each number into the dishes and then my son finished sorting the rest of the cards into the dishes they went in.

Ice Cream Cloud Dough Sensory Play

Ice cream cloud dough provided an entire afternoon of fun! Plus, it was SO EASY to make! We just combined 8 cups of flour with 1 cup of oil and a little powdered food coloring. Then, shake all ingredients in a lidded container. My 3 year old LOVED helping shake up the cloud dough!

To set up the sensory play station, I set out a large poster board outside since this activity does get a bit messy. Then, I gave my son two containers of cloud dough “ice cream”, an ice cream scooper, plastic cones, and some ice cream dishes. He didn’t even want to stop playing for dinner!

Ice Cream Puzzles Sensory Bin

For our last sensory bin, I added ice cream puzzle pieces to the rainbow sprinkles bin. Then, my son found the matching pieces and put the puzzles together outside of the sensory bin. We reviewed each letter name as we made the puzzles.

I hope these sensory bins have given you some fun ideas for ice cream week with your own little ones! You can grab all of the printable pieces from my Ice Cream Themed Toddler School Unit!

If you want to plan even more activities for your little ones, you can download my free guide here for activities, ideas, and planning pages:

This post may contain Amazon affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase through one of my affiliate links, which helps to support The Primary Brain blog. As always, I only recommend products that I love and all ideas shared are my own.

Written on July 15th, 2019 by Laurin Brainard