It does not look like the real stuff is coming any time soon

So we have been making some of our own

Snow

Sensory snow

For our Show Me Show Me Inspired Sparkle Snow Ball!

To make the snow I used flour and salt and sugar. This makes it nice and soft and fluffy but also a little sparkly and shiny. This makes sure that the snow is appealing to touch and to look at but not too tempting to eat. As this was sensory snow I also wanted it to smell and we first started doing this around Christmas time and so to add scent I used ginger, cinammon and nutmeg.

Once the snow was made it was time for some inspiration for our Tuff Spot play. We watched the Show Me Show Me special about snow where they have a sparkly snow ball, and we read some of our favourite snowy stories.

Then it was time to add characters to the snow and to set the scene.

There were invitations to be written for people, animals and trains!

Once the invitations were written they had to be delivered among the other letters delivered by Father Christmas and Farmer Nick!

Once invitations had been received people started making their way to the party in sparkling shoe cars and by steam train and diesels, by tractor, by trailer, by sleigh and as they came they left their tracks in the snow for all to see.

Esther and William set up the ball as a party they might like to attend and so the lucky guests got to enjoy all the fun of the fair.

Esther and William played with this sensory snow scene not for hours but for days. We added to it and we took things away but this Tuff Spot filled with sensory snow kept them engaged and enthused for hours at a time.

As well as imaginary small world play we also used the snow for mark making

I also hid wooden letters in the snow for Esther and William to find.

They know all their letters now and can spell simple CVC words. We had lots of phonic fun in the snow, writing with our fingers and matching initial letter sounds to toys.

But mostly Esther and William used their senses to explore this messy, sensory material and they enjoyed storytelling through their play.

We played together in the snow and we had a ball!

We would love to know what you think of our messy play and we would love for you to share with us what you have been doing to.

This post marks the return of Messy Play for Matilda Mae.

This will be a weekly linky and will go live every Sunday night.

We hope that you will join us for fun and learning through messy and sensory play.