Melting Hearts

What you’ll need:

Tray of ice cubes,
Bowl of colored water,
A small amount of salt,
Extra bowls for pouring and transferring,
Small spoon
And an eye dropper.

For the ice cubes, I chose heart shaped for Valentines Day and I colored the water red.
The purpose of this activity is to compare ways of trying to melt the hearts. Will the water, salt or water and salt together melt the hearts faster?
Another thing about this activity is it’s great for fine motor skills while scooping and squeezing the eye dropper.



On the top left, there are the ice cubes. Next to them is the red water. On the bottom left, there is the salt, and then the empty bowl that the salt can be transferred too and finally on the bottom right corner, there is the other empty bowl for the red water. The water is transferred with the eye dropper and the small spoon is used for the salt. The kids can take apart the ice by themselves. That is one of the things I like about silicone trays is the ice is easy to take out because it doesn’t stick.

What happens when red water is added to the hearts?


What happens when salt is added to the hearts?


Finally, what happens when you combine everything?

Exploring Ice Sensory Tub

First, I filled the ice cube tray with water and put in random small objects so they would freeze in the ice cubes. I used a piece of a straw, round bead, sparkly heart, a penny, dice, round stones, a button, a shiny star, a pompom and two marshmallows. The marshmallows didn’t freeze, but the pompom was frozen even in the middle because it absorbed the water. For the four empty spaces in the tray, I added drops of food coloring. I overfilled some of the spaces and the colors started to spill over into the other spaces and mix before the cubes froze.
I took two silicone cupcake holders and made cupcake shaped ice cubes. It was one of my favorite parts of the tub and now I’m looking for other things around the house that would be neat to put water in and freeze. I also included ice cubes shaped liked hearts.






After everything was frozen, I put all the ice cubes into the tub with some sponges, cups, funnels, a spatula with points, straws, eye droppers, a turkey baster, a shovel, a paint brush and q-tips to explore the ice with. They can find treasures within the ice cubes, look at mixing colors, experience the ice melting and play with the water.

Arctic Ice Fishing

Here’s an ice fishing activity that I made to go with my Antarctica theme.

What you’ll need:
1 container,
Water,
Food coloring,
Rubber or plastic fish or other objects that you want to freeze,
Spoons, Plastic or wooden hammer or Anything else to break the ice with,
Snow cone maker, (optional).

First, I filled the container about half full with water. I used a plastic Tupperware container. I forgot to take pictures as I was making it. I added four drops of blue food coloring. Then added a few rubber fish that I bought at the Dollar Tree. I know that most of these fish don’t live in Antarctica, but they are the closest thing I have on hand. Next, I put the container in the freezer. I didn’t want all the water to freeze so I kept checking on it. Some of the water spilled so I had to add more which is why it ended up filled almost to the top. It took about three or four hours for the top half of the container to freeze. With the water underneath cold, but not completely frozen, it makes it easier to make holes in the ice. Some of the fish froze upside-down which I didn’t plan on either. Well, maybe they were diving!

Once the top was frozen, I took it out and tried to poke it with a spoon. It was a little hard, but doable. It would be easier with a hammer or something else to tap with. That’s part of the fun, the kids can experiment and figure out what works best to get the fish out.







Next, I added snow! I used an inexpensive snow cone maker I bought from Walmart. I used about a cup of ice cubes which doesn’t make much snow, but enough for a couple little snow banks or a layer of snow on the top. It melts quickly so making a few cups and freezing it might work better especially if you have more than one child doing this activity. I thought it came out well and think it’d be fun to try with the preschoolers.

Frozen Shapes

I receive an E-mail newsletter from, Play-Activities.com where I saw this idea. I thought it would be neat to try so I’m posting it.


Frozen Water Shapes

Materials:
Various size balloons
Food coloring
Eye droppers
Large container for water play


Preparation:
1. Select different shaped balloons
2. Fill with water
3. Put in freezer for a few days
4. After they are frozen solid- cut away the balloon, leaving the shape.

Ideas:
Put the ice shapes into the large container. ( baby bath, paddling pool or water table)
Allow them to drop the food colouring onto the ice and watch the colors change.

Good For:
Hand - Eye Coordination
Experimentation
Creativity

You could also do this with different shaped ice cube trays.