How to Make Fake Snow with Flour for Winter Sensory Play

Learn how to make fake snow with flour so you can create a sparkly snow sensory bin for your students! You definitely need to add this to your winter activities for preschoolers.

Are you following Fun-A-Day’s Winter Pinterest board?

Preschooler's hands molding fake snow made with flour

Related: Penguin Sensory Bin

My preschoolers love of snow and winter animals inspired this fun sensory play material!

A few years ago, during an Arctic animal theme, the kids asked to make our own version of “snow” . . . and how could I turn that request down?!

Here’s how to make fake snow with flour and corn starch. The kids and I put together this recipe with items already on-hand in my teaching cabinet, as we haven’t had any real snow to get into. We decided to make it “super sparkly” just because we could!

How to Make Fake Snow with Flour

This recipe is a wintery version of our fun toddler-safe play sand.

The fake snow recipe below is NOT taste-safe, as it contains baby oil. Simply use vegetable oil in place of the baby oil if you’d rather it be a taste-safe version. Technically, you really don’t want kids eating handfuls of raw flour either . . . so be sure to review your expectations with the kids ahead of time.

I chose to use both flour and cornstarch to give it a finer texture. I haven’t made a version with all cornstarch yet, but I bet that feels beautiful, too.

Fake Snow Recipe with Flour

Below is what we used to make our flour snow. You can make adjustments based on your personal preferences or the materials you already have on-hand.

12 cups All-purpose flour
12 cups Cornstarch
3 cups Baby Oil
White iridescent snowflake sequins
White iridescent sequins
Silver glitter
White glitter

Winter Cloud Dough Directions

My students helped me make up a batch! Yes, this made the process a bit messier, but the children loved being involved in the creation of their sensory bin. We were able to talk about counting, measuring, textures, and a variety of other concepts as we worked together.

First, measure the flour and cornstarch. Pour the dry ingredients into your sensory bin.

The children helped me count out and dump the flour and cornstarch into our large sensory table. They really got into feeling the flour and the cornstarch!

Next, add in the baby oil (or vegetable oil if that’s your preference). Mix everything together well.

Most of my students rather liked the smell, but one didn’t care for it too much – “That is just terrible smelling!” It didn’t dissuade him from helping though!

We used slotted spoons to mix the oil and the dry mixture. I showed the students how to press the spoon down and wiggle it around to help the oil combine with the flour and cornstarch. After some elbow grease, they were ready to add in the sparkles!

close up image of sparkly fake snow made from flour and cornstarch

Then it’s time to add the extras! Glitter and snowflake sequins give your fake snow a lot of extra sparkle.

I tried to give everyone a turn to place sequins and glitter into the mixture. It did, indeed, end up super sparkly. The cornstarch dulled the sparkle a little bit, but the kids still loved it!

You now know how to make fake snow with flour! You can add a variety of items to the flour if you’d like. Some ideas to get you started:

Now let’s take a look at how the kids can use this fun sensory material.

Playing with Fake Snow in Preschool

Since this is an open-ended sensory activity, you’ll see the children playing with your fake snow in a variety of ways.

Some children will have fun running their hands through the “snow.” They may spend a bit of time doing this, and that’s perfectly fine!

Other kids will focus in on scooping and pouring the snow with the sensory tools you’ve included in the bin. They might even make snowballs or build snow castles.

Still more will turn the fake snow bin into a small world. They’ll use the winter animal toys to tell all kinds of stories.

My students enjoyed using the cups and spoons in our bin, but they had a TON more fun just exploring the flour snow with their hands. Some spent a lot of time just running their hands through the snow. As they did so, I could see their bodies noticeably calm.

Others loved grabbing handfuls and squeezing it together, then crumbling it up to make it snow.

a preschool boy gleefully squeezing a handful of fake snow made with flour

We added our Arctic animals, as well! The fake snow really showcased how some Arctic animals blend in with the snow.

Most of the kiddos loved gathering it all up into one spot to create a snow castle/cave/polar bear den/etc.

More Flour Snow Ideas

Once you know how to make fake snow with flour, you can use it for so many things. We obviously used it mainly as a winter sensory bin. But there are even more ways to use it for a variety of learning goals.

Here are a few ideas:

Use the snow as part of an Arctic small world play invitation.
Create a snow writing tray with it.
Pair the snow with winter calendar numbers. The kids can make mini snowballs for each number.

I found this recipe for super strong snow slime made with Insta-snow, and we can’t wait to try it next!

What about you? Do you have a favorite recipe for how to make fake snow with flour, or do you use different ingredients? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!

Preschool Snow Lesson Plans

Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 learning activities related to the theme.

snowflake-lesson-plans-for-preschool-teachers

These snowflake lesson plans include active hands-on learning ideas, book suggestions, and the following printables:

Snowflake Roll and Color Graphing
2 Sets of Snowflake Number Cards for 0-35
Snowflake Beginning Sounds Activity for Sounds /s/, /t/, and /m/
Upper- and Lowercase Snowflake Letter Matching Puzzles
Snowflake Patterning and Sorting Cards
Count the Snowflakes Emergent Math Reader for Numbers 1 to 5
Count the Snowflakes Emergent Math Reader for Numbers 1 to 10

Want even more lesson plans that will pair well with fake snow and winter? We have you covered! Click on the images below to learn more about each product.