Ice

[tomthumb]

I got some heart shaped ice cube trays from Tesco yesterday and I thought it would be nice for the children to do something with ice cubes but I have never done it!
I was wondering how to go about it. I have frozen little hearts and I was going to put them in tray with a little bit of water so that the ice cubes don't stick to their hands. Is that what you would do?? We can then talk about cold etc...bearing in mind that the babies I look after are all 18 months and under!
Any help as to what else I could do with them would be really appreciated.

Thanks

Elodie X

[tomthumb]

any ideas anyone???

Elodie X

[miss mopple]

At that age just playing with them will be interesting enough I expect. Maybe give them pots/spoons etc too. Try building towers from the cubes, introduce new words- slippery/smooth/freezing/wet/melting etc

I put bears and penguins etc in the tray when we do ice, and sometimes freeze things inside the ice so older kids try to work out how to get it out. You could also freeze different colours, put on a white tray and watch the colours merge as they melt.

[Chatterbox Childcare]

Use them as chocolate molds - yummy

or soap moulds with different scents

[balloon]

Building a little on miss mopple's idea ... you could make a few ice cubes in the primary colours with food dye and thaw them in two's to make secondary colours depending on ages they could find that 'magic'

[HelenJC]

Hi

Don't know how old your children are, but I did a science session a long time ago for young children using an ice balloon. You froze water in a partly blown up balloon. When frozen, peel off the balloon skin and sit ice on a tray or in a bowl.

Then the fun bit is you add a teaspoon of salt and watch what happens. You can then add food colouring to the hole made by the salt and the colour feathers into the ice like veins. Very pretty and interesting.

Might work with the hearts but they could be a bit small.

Chocolate sounds good!

Helen

[angeldelight]

Painting with Ice
Another great activity to do outside on a cold day.
You'll need:
Paint
Toothpicks / Cocktail sticks
Ice cube tray
Heaviest paper you can find (like you use for finger painting)


Here's what you do:
Fill the ice cube tray with water and place a toothpick in it to act as a handle for the cube of ice. Hint: if you will let part of it freeze and then insert the toothpick it will stand straight up.

When the ice is frozen, place some paint on the paper and paint with the cube of ice instead of a brush. The designs and effects are amazing!

Tip: The heavier the paper, the better the results.

Angel xx

[Carol]

Thanks for all your ideas

Carol xx

[Happy Feet]

I like the idea of activities with ice....thanks for sharing! xx

[miffy]

Thank you everyone for some lovely ideas

Miffy xx