Thank you Four Monks Vinegar for sponsoring this post!
Dr. Seuss is taking over my life.
That became crystal clear the moment I asked my daughter to go pick up her room and she sassed me with-
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.
She wasn’t so amused when she realized two could play this game as I chimed in-
Today is your day! Your Mountain (of clothes) is waiting…so get on your way!
Good ole Dr. Seuss makes everything so much more fun 😉
While celebrating his birthday this week we have had a lot of fun bringing the Dr. Seuss books to life. Yes, things got a bit cheeky, but when you have a pre-teen in the house everything has a touch of drama.
Out of all the activities and games we played, this One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish Science Sensory Bin was definitely our favorite. My son in particular (age 3) has fallen in love with this book after discovering it through this activity. It has become one of those page turners that gets read over so many times its last page may as well be its first.
Items Needed to Make a Red Fish, Blue Fish Sensory Science Bin
- One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by. Dr. Seuss (buy here
)
- Rubbermaid Bin (buy here
)
- Silicone Ice Tray (buy here
)
- Baking Soda (buy here
)
- Four Monks Citrus Mint Vinegar (buy here)
- Food Dye (buy here
)
- Snow
- Shovels, scoops, and sensory bin toys
If you are in an area that doesn’t get snow, don’t worry! You can still do this activity by making your own fake snow at home or filling your sensory bin with something like our taste safe moon sand!
How to Set up and Play
This activity does require a bit of planning the night before as you need to make your frozen fish. To make your frozen fish you will need two bowls each with about 1/2-1 cup of baking soda in them. Add blue food dye to one bowl and red food dye to the other. I also added in a tad of water to make the mixture easier to stir and freeze. I added water and stirred until it was about the consistency of Oobleck. Then add it to your silicone ice tray and freeze. Don’t worry if there is some bleeding of colors, the fish will still turn out beautiful!
Once frozen, fill up a bin with snow (or sensory bin filler of your choice) and then pop out your frozen fish into the bin. You might want to lay down a mess mat or shower curtain for this bin because the melting food dye is messy.
If you are not a fan of messy play swing over and read our Essentials for Parents Who Hate Messy Play post – it will be a huge sanity saver for you. Once everything was set up, I just handed my son the tools and let him explore!
Why Four Monks Citrus Mint Vinegar?
Lately, my kids have been avoiding any activities that I set up that include vinegar. My son in particular, does not like the smell. I can’t blame him, vinegar is a harsh sour smell. It is absolute magic for stuff like cleaning your house, removing stains, and science experiments such as this, but it just plain ole stinks. The Four Monks Vinegar is a fabulous solution for this. They have an Aroma Controlled (no scent) and this Citrus Mint Vinegar. Both are fantastic. My little guy loves the scent of citrus so this vinegar allowed him to enjoy every aspect of this sensory bin.
Once he realized that this vinegar does not stink, he did not hesistate to jump in to play. The absolute neatest thing about this bin was that as the bicarbonate reaction happened between the baking soda and the vinegar, the snow FROZE the bubbles.
It is a bit hard to see in these pictures because this room didn’t have the best winter lighting, but the bubbles would stay put right along the edges of where the fish met the snow. Even the areas of this fish that melted off and then touched the surface of the snow would keep their bubbles. It was amazing!
My little guy could only take about five minutes of squeezing the spray bottle so we did eventually open up the bottle, pour some out, and switch over to using eye droppers. Although the spray bottle was more of a challenge, both ways of play were fantastic for fine motor and visual coordination.
The brightly colored snow was also perfect for building Wumps!
My 9-month-old, 3-year-old, and 8-year-old all played this activity and LOVED IT…well the baby more so ate the snow, but still. This was an activity the entire family enjoyed together.
Share This Idea for Other Families to Find!
