Faux Snow Snowman Counting Activity

My preschooler is obsessed with counting, but she’s not very good at it. She still needs more practice to count beyond five. She isn’t interested in many worksheet-based counting activities, but she LOVES sensory play and anything messy. I make this snowman counting activity to do with her to encourage her to learn how to count!

MATERIALS NEEDED FOR THE FAUX SNOW SNOWMAN COUNTING ACTIVITY

• Snowman mini-erasers
• Corn starch
• Baking soda
• Play tray
• Foam numbers

Before starting the counting activity, make some fake snow. I mixed about 1 cup of baking soda and 1 cup of corn starch in a bowl, the added water until it could hold its shape when squeezed. The mixture of baking soda and corn starch looks similar to real snow, and the texture is pleasant for little hands.
Pour the snow onto your play tray.

Give your preschooler the mini-erasers and the foam letters. Let her play with them for a while, then ask leading questions, like “what number is this?” “Can you find X snowmen.

Our favorite counting activity was where I would select a number, and Bo would stack that many snowmen into the snow. She liked making them stand up as if they were really in the snow.

She also had a lot of fun stamping the snowmen and letters into our faux snow, similar to our cloud dough letter smash activity. 

Bo was happy to play with counting and the snow set-up for an hour. She doesn’t usually have a long attention span, so for an educational activity to hold her attention this long was remarkable.

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Eventually, I let her just play with the letters and snowmen in the snow and she thought that was a lot of fun as well. She loved hiding the snowmen and then finding them later.