Years and years ago I posted three easy recipes for fake snow. They are still great, but since then we've discovered the rather amazing Insta Snow Powder. Insta Snow powder is a super absorbent powder very similar to what is found in babies nappies! Insta Snow powder is slightly different to that in nappies though as it becomes super fluffy when it absorbs water whereas the polymer in nappies becomes more gel like.
You can read all about the science behind Insta Snow on the Steve Spangler website, but take my word for it, it's amazing stuff!
To make the best fake snow you need to add just the right amount of water to the insta snow powder, but this is an experiment in inself. Try adding different amounts of water and insta snow powder until you find the best combination.
Things to do with fake snow
Create a snowy scene
My little boy loves Thomas the Tank Engine, so we made our snowy scene Thomas themed. I sprinkled insta snow powder around the track and trains and added water so he could watch the snow appear.
Make animal footprints
Insta snow is great for making animal footprints or even drawing letters and numbers. We used this animal track sheet from the RSBP to learn about different animal footprints and also took a bit of inspiration from our current favourite books, The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child.
Make a winter terrarium
Babble Dabble Do has instructions for an amazing winter terrarium using insta snow powder. These look amazing, I can't wait to have a go.
Melt the snow
If you add salt to insta snow powder it melts, just like real snow! this is because salt breaks the polymer down releasing the water!
Freeze it!
Try freezing your Insta Snow to make it even more snow like. Can you build a snowman or towers?
I froze our snow in a muffin tin so we had blocks to build with, these felt lovely as the snow started to soften.
Can you think of any more uses of Insta Snow for us?
Last Updated on January 6, 2021 by Emma Vanstone
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