This icy sensory bin is perfect for your next Halloween party or any regular ole Monday! It’s easy to set up and it will keep kids entertained for a long time. Just freeze toy monster eyeballs in extra large sphere ice molds, set out some fine motor tools and you’re all set!
My boys attend several Halloween parties every year and each time they come home with a bunch of little Halloween toys, stickers and other party favors that quite honestly I just want to throw away so I don’t end up stepping on them five minutes later!
But then I calm down and think I might as well put them to good use. So here I am brainstorming some fun ways to reuse these little trinkets in thoughtful and playful ways.
Here is an idea for all of those little plastic toys you will soon have:
FREEZE THEM in ice molds and invite your children to “free” the spiders, witch fingers or in this case…….monster eyeballs!
All of a sudden those boring toys are transformed into a simple and fun activity that will keep your children entertained for a loooooong time!
Here’s what you’ll need…
Supplies:
- Fine motor tools– We’ve collected a bunch of tools over the years but this is our favorite set.
- Bin- We did not use the best bin for this activity. I suggest using a larger bin! Trust be on this one.
- Monster eyeballs
- Sphere Ice Mold– If you go with the monster eyeballs, you’ll need an extra large mold to accommodate the eyes so I suggest this one!
- Toothpick
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Here’s What We Did:
Step 1:
Put the eyes in the sphere ice molds, put the black cover on and fill it with water.
PAY ATTENTION HERE! Make sure you push the eyes down with a toothpick so water can fill all around the eye. I made the mistake of not doing this the first time and the eyes were blocking the water from filling up the whole mold.
Once you see the water spilling out of the top of the ice mold, use a toothpick to move the red part of the eye to the center of the mold so you can see it through the tiny hole. I also made this mistake with my first round of frozen eyes and you could only see the green part.
Step 2:
Now freeze and repeat the process as many times as you would like. Plan ahead if you want to make multiple batches!
You might notice they are slightly cracked and not covering the entire eye when you pop them out of the mold. I thought it looked cool and added to the spookiness of the activity.
Step 3:
Transport them to your sensory spot. I didn’t put them on the tray just yet because I didn’t want them to roll around and break so I put them in a smaller bucket. Turns out they are pretty tough!
Step 4:
Set up your activity. I put out the frozen monster eyeballs, fine motor tools and some warm water to help with the melting process.
My boys got right to work and Leo suggested that I get the ice mold so he could set the eyeballs in it with warm water. Smart boy!
They love experimenting with the fine motor tools! First up, use your hand eye coordination to try to capture the eyeballs.
You can also try to pick the eyeballs out with the tweezers!
The twisty water droppers are always the favorite! They got a kick out of squirting water on the eyeballs:)
At this part of the activity, I was wishing I had a larger sensory container because water was spilling out of the sides. Lesson learned!
Finally success! It took my boys about 45 minutes to unfreeze all of the eyes. They were engaged and having fun the whole time!
Once the ice is melted and the eyeballs are floating in the water, you can get out strainers, ladles and other kitchen supplies to make eyeball stew or you can just call it a day!
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I hope you give this spooky activity a try! I promise, your little nature lovers will love it as much as my boys.
∼Tara
