Buddy loves sensory bins, so I’m always excited when I see a new sensory bin idea. When I saw the Ice Cream Sensory Bin on Fantastic Fun and Learning’s blog, I knew Buddy would love it! He loves playing with cotton balls, and he loves ice cream, so it’s perfect!
I set up the bin by putting a bag of cotton balls into a silver bowl. Then, I put some toppings into old baby food containers. I used two different types of pony beads (circles and stars) to be sprinkles. Fantastic Fun and Learning used sequins, but I thought beads would be easier to separate back out after we’re done. I also found a few red pom poms to be cherries. I finished the bin by adding a few plastic bowls and spoons and an ice cream scoop.
Buddy was thrilled when he saw the bin. He immediately started scooping out ice cream and sprinkles into each bowl. Buddy loves to serve pretend food, and this was even better because of the sensory aspect. He seemed to really enjoy the scooping from one container to another. 
Once Buddy had played around with the materials for a bit, I was a customer to the ice cream shop. I would place an order, and Buddy would make it for me. Buddy thought this was a lot of fun!
Of course Buddy made himself ice cream sundaes and had a lot of fun pretending to eat them. 
This was such a fun sensory bin! Buddy loved it and has done it a couple other times since our original activity. It’s being added into our regular sensory bin rotation as a pre-dinner time distraction.
