foaming fake snow experiment

Fake Snow Lab – Testing the Best Recipes

Winter is the time for bundling up and playing in the snow. But if you can’t get to snow, can you still have winter? In this fun experiment, kids will learn how to make their very own fake snow and determine the best fake snow recipe. And have a lot of fun playing in it, without having to pile on the coats! This post contains affiliate links.

Setting Up Your Fake Snow Lab

This experiment starts with a simple idea. What is the best fake snow recipe? Nothing says winter like snow, but if you can’t get the real deal (like we can’t in the San Francisco area!), use this STEM challenge to find out what fake snow recipe is the best.

Fake Snow Lab Supplies

• Insta-Snow (find it here!)
• Baking Soda
• Paper Towels
• Shaving Cream
• 4 small bowls

Recipe 1: Baking Soda and Shaving Cream

Mix 1 cup of baking soda with 1 cup of shaving cream. Mix with a fork. Add a few drops of water until the mixture takes on a snow-like appearance. You may need to add a little more water or baking soda depending on the humidity of your room.

Recipe 2: Paper Towels and Baking Soda

Shred a paper towel into tiny pieces. Blend the pieces of paper towel in a blender or food processor. Add 1/2 a cup of baking soda and a few drops of water. Mix with a fork until a snowy texture is formed.

Recipe 3: Insta-Snow

Place a teaspoon of Insta-Snow powder in a small container. The snow will grow to 100 times its original size, so make sure there is plenty of room in the container. Add 2 ounces of water. Watch the snow magically expand before your eyes. You might need to mix it up a bit with a fork to distribute the water evenly.

Recipe 4: Insta-Snow and Shaving Cream

Complete the recipe above, but also add 1/2 cup of shaving cream. Mix the shaving cream in with a fork. Keep adding shaving cream until you can form a ball of Insta-Snow in your hand.

Testing the Fake Snow Recipes

We conducted a series of experiments on our snow recipes to determine which recipe is the best. Our tests were as follows:

• Coldness test
• Snowball test
• Texture test

Coldness Test

The coldness test was our first challenge. We tested each fake snow recipe to determine how realistic the snow was in terms of temperature. Surprisingly enough, some of the recipes actually felt cold, even though we didn’t use particularly cold water to make them. We looked up the explanation on the Steve Spangler Science page and found out that when Insta-Snow (and our other fake snow recipes) evaporates, the water leaving the snow makes it feel cool to the touch. Insta-Snow and the baking soda snow were the coldest. The paper towel snow and the shaving cream snow were not cold to the touch.

Snowball Test

The children tested each type of snow to determine which fake snow could be rolled into a snowball. Snowballs are an important element for any snow (according to the kids). The Insta-Snow could not make any ball shape. The paper towel snow was too lumpy. The baking soda snow balled up pretty well (ours was a little too dry to make a ball), and the Insta-Snow mixed with shaving cream made the best ball, making it the winner of the snowball challenge.

Texture Test

The kids decided right away that the paper towel recipe was nothing like the texture of real snow. The Insta-Snow combined with shaving cream was also nothing like snow. The baking soda snow felt like snow, except it was too gritty. The texture of Insta-Snow was its biggest weakness, as it felt more like packing peanuts than real snow. The baking soda snow won the texture challenge.

The Best Fake Snow Recipe

The kids determined that Insta-Snow was the best snow, even with its weakness in the snowball test. The kids loved how the Insta-Snow could sprinkle like real snow, looked like real snow, and was cold to the touch. The addition of shaving cream to the snow also made Insta-Snow perfect for making snowballs or fake snowmen. Even though the baking soda snow looked like snow and could make snowballs, the kids did not like the gritty texture.

Fake Snow STEM Elements

This activity includes everything you need for a comprehensive STEM project.

Science: Kids will use scientific inquiry and a series of tests to determine the best fake snow.

Technology: Children will learn about chemical reactions and why the Steve Spangler Insta-Snow expands so quickly.

Engineering: Children will test each snow for temperature, snowball ability, and appearance.

Math: Children must measure ingredients to create the right consistency for each snow recipe.

More Fake Winter Fun :)

For more fake snow fun inspired by California winters, try this California Snowball Fight !

Join us as we explore all things WINTER with the STEAM Explorers Winter Ebook Unit Study !

Kids will love freezing their own hockey rink, crafting a waddling penguin toy, figuring out what helps your jacket keep you warm, snacking on caramel polar bear paws, and so much more! You'll love the helpful standards-based learning, printables, and tools that make STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, & math) exploration easy!

More Weather Fun for Kids

This fake snow lab is a sneak peek into our Weather STEAM Explorers ebook ! Kids will love creating weather in a jar, capturing the daily forecast in an art journal, and becoming a meteorologist with DIY tools. You’ll love the helpful standards-based learning, printables, and tools that make STEAM exploration easy!

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Experiment: Make Fake Snow

• Curiosity , Elementary , Experiment , Pre-School , Science Experiments

15 Comments

How to make fake snow.

We’ve been making fake snow, which is equally fun for kids like mine who celebrate winter under a sea of palm trees or those who are house-bound by piles of real winter snow.

Note: This post contains Amazon links for your convenience.

• Instant Snow (sodium polyacrylate)
• Liquid Watercolors
• Low-walled clear storage box
• Spoons and bowls for scooping and filling

How we did it

We started by pouring a small amount of Instant Snow into a large tub. The material used to make fake snow is non-toxic (although you wouldn’t want to eat it), and you’ll recognize it as the same stuff used to absorb liquid in disposable diapers.

I almost always fall into the camp of “you can always add more,” so we started with just a little bit. I heard about a prank where someone poured the powder all over their parent’s lawn in the middle summer, only to be greeted by a sea of snow once their sprinklers went off. This vision sat firmly in my mind, so I poured gingerly, not knowing just how much the powder would expand.

Mix colors into your fake snow

This turned into a cool color mixing experiment. It was fascinating to see how many of the “snow” pellets absorbed one color or the other, and cast an illusion of purple when viewed at once.

Make Fake Snow with a Friend

What do you think? Will you try to make fake snow?

Learn more about  how disposable baby diapers work  from Imagination Station

Watch Steve Spangler demonstrate Instant Snow on the Ellen Show. I can’t help but smile at Ellen’s reaction to Steve. She’s hilarious.

Note: Use your best judgement and due diligence when using these materials with young children.

I would like to get some of this to try too! I love how you you had N add color to the snow and mix colors! BTY: Baby R is looking so big with all that hair! We just tried Water Beads and they are using the same idea (I think!) Ironically I mentioned Insta snow at the end of this post: http://www.thechocolatemuffintree.com/2011/09/water-bead-fun.html Great minds think alike! Love the video! Check this video out for the commercialized take on water beads (it is a little crazy!): http://www.orbeezone.com/

my best friend just commented on the hair, too, so guess it’s been a while since i’ve shared pictures of her. and melissa, i saw your post and haven’t had a chance to pop over and comment on it yet, but YES, great minds think alike! i must get my hands on water beads!!! they look like a ridiculous amount of fun.

When this is so much fun to look at, I can imagine how interesting it would be to do. I like that you introduced liquid water colours. The photos are so bright and colourful.

We don’t get anything by the name ‘fake snow’ but I will look for Sodium Ployacrylate.

thanks, rashmie. and good luck finding it!

When I taught preschool, I came across some of this in a cupboard. As a professional clown and daughter to two magicians, I know this material as slush powder. It’s wonderful! I poured about half the pack into our classroom sensory tub, added water, and for several weeks we had our own mini winter wonderland in our class. I threw in some scoops and some Arctic animals and the kids had a blast. What’s nice is if it starts to dry out a bit, you simply add more water! I love your idea of adding color; we didn’t do that. Would have been fun to do before I finally dumped it all!

Slush powder is such a descriptive, wonderful name for this stuff. Good idea to make it the backdrop for a winter play scene. I’ll have to try that this winter when it’s 80 degrees here in California 🙂

I use this stuff every year. I can usually find it in big containers in every teacher store or in a small test tube at places like Kroger or Drug stores. It does absorb a lot of water. If you have multiple children playing in it, you should have them wash their hands first because it also picks up the dirt and looks dingy after a week or so. I found if you keep a lid on it, it starts to smell funky. It says you can dry it out and reuse it but I thought it looked too dirty and smelly to want to.

Thanks for the great tips on storing this stuff, Kristah. It’s new to me, so I had no idea!

Included this post at the end of our making snow post!

Here’s the chemistry-teacher mom adding two cents…sodium polyacrylate will release all the water it has absorbed if you add sodium chloride–table salt.  It turns the whole pile of snow instantly back to liquid–kind of fun when you’re completely done playing with it!  And if you’re looking to retrieve it from a diaper, just cut some slits in the diaper (business side is usually easiest), put it in a large garbage bag, and shake-shake-shake.  You’ll have powdered snow in the bag!  (We used to do this to get the stuff for HS demos before it was so easy to buy.)

I did this experiment today with my 2 1/2 -3 year old class we used disposable diapers….they were amazed that their diapers could make snow.

How cool, Traci. I know that you can do this with diapers, but we haven’t tried it yet. Thanks so much for swinging back over to let me know how it went with your little ones. Cheers, Rachelle

Ha ha, I accidentally put a clean diaper through the wash once (we keep the diapers just above the clothes basket and one fell in when I didn’t notice.) I threw all the clothes in the washer as usual and went on with the rest of my house work. I came back to move the clothes to the dryer and discovered a white/clear jelly substance stuck all over the clothes. I could not figure out what it was until I found the diaper. (facepalm). I then had to shake all the clothes off before putting them into the dryer, leaving the stuff in my washer. By then, I was fed up with it, so I took a break and came back later to find what I had been hoping to find. The water had evaporated and all that was left was the powder which was much easier to clean off.

I think I’ll give this a try as a fun experience and not a messy one!

This is totally AWESOME!!

Thanks so much, Angela 🙂

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Winter Boredom Buster: DIY Fake Snow!

• Posted On Dec 14, 2022 | STEM

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