Melted Snowman in a Jar: Easy Sensory Craft for Kids

Kids will love this fun and creative take on the traditional snowman craft. All you need for this activity are a few jars (or small containers), beads, buttons, orange felt, sticks, and glitter to make a melted snowman in a jar. Once you make the jars, you can use the snowmen as a calm-down activity, discovery bottle, or I-spy activity. Kids will get a kick out of how the snowman pieces float around in the jar. Depending on what you use to make the snowman, different pieces will float and sink at different rates. If you want to get extra fancy, you can add a bit of corn starch to the liquid to slow the descent of the snowman pieces and make it more like a melted snowman snow globe, but for our purposes, we kept things simple and used water only.

Recommended Grade Level:

Preschool

Kindergarten

1st Grade

Supply List
Coordinating Activities

Materials for the Melted Snowman in a Jar Sensory Activity:

Jar
Water
Buttons
Small Sticks
Glitter
Orange Felt
Googly Eyes

text overlay snow volcano winter science experiment for kids image of an orange baking soda and vinegar eruption in snow

The trick to getting the snowman to work is to put a few drops of dish soap into the jar along with the glitter. This helps the glitter float gently through the water, rather than clumping up on the top of the jar. In the jar, place two sticks, buttons, black beads (for the mouth), a carrot (you can also use a piece of orange felt), googly eyes, and any other accessories you think the snowman should have.

Fill the jar with water and sprinkle in some sliver glitter for fun. Drop 2 drops of dish soap into the water to keep the glitter from sticking to the surface of the water.

Seal the jar tightly and give it a shake. Watch as the snowman pieces gently swirl around the jar and either sink to the bottom or rise to the top, depending on how dense they are!