Sensory play snow: there is little comparable material!
Author: Weekend care
for children with disabilities
Making your own snow: winter fun at the table! 
We thought this activity would be impressive for the children, but as supervisors we were also amazed to see how a small cap of powder combined with water was transformed into glittering snow. With a little powder from the packaging we quickly filled a whole plate with snow, ready to start the activity.
Feel and experience
It was exciting for a while, because what we saw on the sign the children had not seen very often. Together with a boy of 6 (severe form of autism) we went to investigate. At the start it was so exciting that we had to carefully help him, after showing him how to feel the snow. I held his hand and together we felt the snow with one finger. What is special is that the snow feels really wet and cool, so it was a bit of a shock when the snow stuck to our fingers. One finger became two, until we both dared to put our entire hand in the snow.
Action-reaction
After the ice was broken, the boy dared to explore more. Feeling the snow himself and carefully lifting it. I was allowed to sprinkle the snow over his hand, making it look like it was really snowing. After a few minutes, I noticed that the boy started to imitate me. He let snow fall from the sky when I did this and followed me when I drew figures in the snow. A small moment of happiness with this boy who spends most of his time in his own little world! It was nice to see how his tension for this new material decreased and how he dared to try out more and more. We moved the snow with our hands from the board to the table top and gradually expanded our playing area. At the end, we had a lot of fun when we discovered that the snow could also be thrown: snowflakes flew in all directions and we were completely covered. Now that's fun playing!
For our target group, this is a wonderful material to work with sensory-wise, because there is little material that is comparable to how this feels. It is light and therefore gives a soft touch, but is also exciting because it sticks a little. In addition to being a sensory material, you can be very creative with it: from fantasy play with dolls/cars/animals in the snow to a craft activity. Keep in mind that you need quite some time to clean up: a wet cloth over the table made the granules stick. After vacuuming the room, everything was neat again. We noticed that the snow is also tempting to discover with your mouth, which is why we had to intervene a few times, but this is not a big problem. We also like the fact that you can do a whole activity with a small cap of powder, so you can enjoy playing with a package for a long time. We are looking forward to our next discovery moment with this snow!
