Fun & Learning with Ice Cubes!

With all this lovely sunny weather we have been playing outside as much as we can. So why not take your play and learning activities outside too.

Learning with ice as both a play and learning resource is such a good idea. It’s free and we have an unlimited supply. Plus its there is so much you can do with just a little imagination. Your kids will love bashing it, painting with it and floating it; whilst also discovering and learning why it freezes and melts.

Here are three activity ideas we have used.

Ice Boats.

We loved making these Ice Boats today. Really simple and great for a learning activity.
1. You need : water, plastic tubs (margarine tub size ) blue takor playdough, wooded skewer, food colouring. Paper for sails.
2. Place a blob of blue tak or playdough at the bottom of each tub and add a skewer.
3. Fill with water about 3/4
4. Add a drop of food colouring.
5. Place in the freezer until solid.
6. Make some paper sails and flags. ( Great for practising mark making )
7. When Frozen add the sails and flags to the skewer then place in a bowl of water.
8. Watch the ice boats float and slowly melt. As they melt watch the water change colour.

Learning opportunities with ice.

Pouring the water into the containers is a great for small motor skills and co- ordination, Use mathematical language more and less, full and empty to discuss how the amount of liquid in the jug is as your pour into each container. For older children you could also use measurements such as ml and measure accurately how much water you are pouring into each boat.

Talk about freezing and melting, liquids and solids. Estimate how long you think it will take the water to freeze.

Practise mark making, writing skills and cutting skills when making the sails and the flags.

When the boats have frozen and you have attached the sails place them in a bowl of water and watch them float. Have a race to see whose boat reaches the other side first. Talk about floating and sinking, Can you find other things that float or sink.

Watch the ice boats slowly melt and as they melt the water changes colour. We used different coloured boats so we could see the colours mixing and changing.

Frozen Dinosaur Eggs.

These are a great activity for a hot day for learning with ice. Your Little ones will love bashing them to try and get the dinosaurs out.
You will need: balloons, small toy dinosaurs, water, food colouring.
1, Blow up a balloon to stretch it out and hold the balloon full of air for about 30 seconds. When you let it down it should be a bit easier to stretch out to then place a small dinosaur inside.( you may need two people to do this part, one to stretch the end out and the other to place in the dinosaur.
2. Partly fill the balloons with coloured water.
This is harder than it looks. First we tried with a funnel and pouring it in but you can’t get much water in the balloon. Then I discovered that it was easier to use the tap. Just carefully add the food colouring after. ( see pics below)
3. Tie the balloon.
4. Freeze.
5. Bash away to try and get the dinosaurs out.
Great Fun.

We all loved this activity and it kept them entertained for a while. Even my teenage son joined in. We used little wooden hammers to bash the eggs and they are surprisingly hard to break through. You could also freeze other small favourite toys.

Learning Opportunities.

Lots of opportunities similar to the Ice Boats activity especially freezing and melting. Plus you could also freeze other objects such as foam letters and numbers for children to recognise. Bashing the eggs is also a great hand to eye co-ordination activity. Some perseverance and patience is also needed.

Ice Paints

These worked really well and we had such bright colours. A good quality food colouring is needed to get this effect.

All you need is an ice cube tray, coloured water, blue tak and lolly sticks.
1. Use a bit of blue tak to stick the lolly sticks in the ice cube trays. This was a bit tricky to get them to stand up so I found that breaking them in half worked better.
2. Add some different coloured water to each ice cube section.
3. Freeze.
4. Enjoy painting and mark making.

We loved painting with these ice paints. We painted on a large piece of paper outdoors. The colours came out really bright however the food colouring did colour our hands too. We didn’t mind though as it all washed off. A great idea for learning with ice!

Learning Opportunities

Again lots of learning opportunities available. In addition to the previous opportunities this activity is also great for mark making and creativity. We practised our Little Learners marks, writing our names and painted colourful rainbows and sunshine.

Have fun trying these ideas and I would love to hear your variations and ideas.

Elinor ( Little Learners Gloucester and Forest of Dean ) https://troyoverend.com/franchise/messy-play-gloucester-forest-of-dean/

Check out our YouTube Channel for more fun ideas like leaning with ice!