Flower activities aren’t just for summer, they can be enjoy year round! Here are some reasons I love this activity:

• If you don’t have flowers available outdoors, just buy a bouquet at the store!
• You can take the activity outdoors on a warm day or make it an indoor activity if the weather isn’t cooperating.
• The flower confetti adds a fun and festive touch! It’s the perfect invitation to play for New Year’s Eve, a birthday party or any other celebration!

But you don’t need a special occasion for this activity! Try it today!

Here’s what you’ll need..

Supplies:

• Whisky ice cube molds– You can use regular ice cubes.
• Flowers- It’s currently winter, so we used bouquet flowers.
• Scissors
• Fine motor tools

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RELATED: Check out Creating a Musical Forest for more sensory activities.

Here’s How We Made Them:

Step 1:

Make your flower confetti ice cubes. You can use whatever ice tray you have laying around the house or get creative and find a different ice tray shape. We love using sphere ice trays and these large square whisky ice cube trays.

Just cut some flower pieces and place about a teaspoon of flower confetti in each cube. Kids can work on their scissor skills and help with this!

Then fill up the tray with water. You will notice that all the flowers float to the top. If you want flowers dispersed throughout the ice cubes, you will need to fill a third of the tray with water and flowers and freeze it, then do this step two more times. Now you will have flowers at three different spots in the ice cube!

Step 2:

Set up the invitation to play. Just place the ice cubes in a tray or large plastic bin.

If you play with the ice cubes as soon as you take them out of the freezer, they will stick to your fingers and that can hurt! Let them sit out for a few minutes to give them time to defrost for a bit.

Step 3:

Set out warm water and fine motor tools. We’ve had this set for years and the kids still love playing with these tools!

Step 3:

Invite children to free the bits of flower confetti from the ice cubes! My kids are always up for this challenge. I swear it never gets old!

First my boys put the ice cubes directly into the warm water. The flower confetti looked so pretty floating in the bowl!

They also love using the tweezers once the ice starts to melt. This is great for both hand-eye coordination and fine motor work!

I had to switch out the water because it was getting cold. Once I added a fresh bowl of warm water, they used the grabber to transfer the water from the bowl to the tray.

We had so much fun with this activity and it kept the boys entertained for 45 minutes!

Save it for later and Pin it!

I hope you give this ice sensory activity a try! I promise, your little nature lovers will love it as much as my boys.

∼Tara

Need more flower confetti ideas?! Check out:

Natural Play Dough with Flower Confetti

Pinecone Nature Confetti Shakers for New Year’s Eve

The post Ice Sensory Play with Flower Confetti appeared first on Little Pine Learners.

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First things first! I want to thank Melissa from Little x Little Photography for collaborating with me on this fun project and letting us test this idea in her gorgeous studio. I know you will enjoy her photos as much as I do!

Supplies

• Pine Cones (Small or Large– I got my large pinecones from Trader Joe’s but these look similar)
• Star Paper Puncher
• Flowers, Leaves, or Other Pieces of Nature
• Gem Stickers
• Bells and Pipe Cleaners

Step 1: Gather your Pieces of Nature

I first heard of the genius nature confetti idea from Mother Natured. Nature confetti is wonderful because it’s biodegradable and won’t harm the environment or animals. On the other hand, the confetti and glitter that most people use for celebrations is made up of tiny pieces of plastic. These little pieces can end up in landfills or waterways and is a known environmental hazard for the oceans. Needless to say, I am now sold on this gorgeous nature confetti idea!

Our New Year’s Eve nature confetti is a little different from your typical nature confetti. In addition to the beautiful bouquet flowers we bought for the activity, I’ve been saving and pressing pieces of nature from special events throughout the year to add to the confetti. I added a couple wildflowers from memorable hikes, leaves from the first day of fall, and other special moments pressed in between the pages of books all over our house.

I displayed these gorgeous pieces of nature on the table and we reminisced about those special times we’ve had together this past year. This little step made this activity a little extra special and meaningful.

Step 2: Prepare Your Nature Confetti

This step was a lot of fun! My boys had fun working on their fine motor skills by tearing, cutting, and punching pieces of nature for our confetti. We used a star paper puncher to punch flower petals and leaves. The paper punch is really fun to use and the stars made the confetti a bit more festive!

Step 3: Prepare Pine Cone Shakers

Who knew pinecones make a the perfect confetti shaker?! This idea randomly came to me one day and I was so excited to try it!

First we added a little sparkle to the pinecone by adding gem stickers. This step is totally optional, but we also use these shakers as holiday decorations, so the gems make them a little more seasonal and decorative. Plus they mimic the shimmery glitter when you shake it. We’ll be saving these for years to come!

Next we added the bells. Leo threaded the bells with the pipe cleaners and I twisted them to the top of each pinecone. Now you have a nature confetti shaker and noise maker all in one!

I put the pinecones in a star shaped container and I stuffed them full of confetti. Try to get a lot of confetti on the ridges!

Step 4: Celebrate and Shake!

We tested out both small and large pinecones.

My boys grabbed one small pinecone in each hand and started shaking! The nature confetti flew around and they loved watching all the colors dance around them.

Last we tried the large pinecones! They were really big but my boys were able to hold on to them with no problems. These pinecones can hold a lot of confetti and it was a lot of fun to watch the boys shake it all out!

We can’t wait to try it again on New Year’s Eve!

I hope you give this fun activity a try! I promise, your little nature lovers will love it as much as my boys.

∼Tara

Don’t put away that bouquet of flowers just yet! Check out A Simple and Beautiful Nature Craft to Try Today.

Check out More of Melissa’s Stunning Photography Here!

The post Pinecone Nature Confetti Shakers for New Year’s Eve appeared first on Little Pine Learners.