A few weeks ago when the weather was really hot I thought I would
freeze some objects in water in a Tupperware container with the idea
that Boris could smash it open and dig all the bits out (I had seen
something similar in Pinterest). I forgot all about it then one sunny
day last week when we had nothing in particular to do it popped into my head and I retrieved it from the depths of the freezer.
I thought I would share it with you today as those hot sunny days are rapidly coming to an end and there might not be many more chances to do an activity like this.
In this tub I froze some sticks, feathers, pebbles, seeds, sand flowers and leaves.
At first he enjoyed scratching the ice crystals that had formed on the lid and on the surface of the ice:
He had a taste of it too,
The ice looked really beautiful filled with the different objects and you could see all the marks created during the formation of the ice inside.
Boris got frustrated because he wanted to get to the pebble straight away but couldn't,
We smashed it with a mallet, I held the handle but Boris had his hand on it too so he could feel involved,
I showed him how to lift up the pieces of broken ice to get to the objects inside,
He enjoyed throwing bits of ice on the ground and making it smash into smaller pieces,
One stick had a piece of ice stuck to the end, Boris licked it like a lolly pop!
He used another stick as a tool to push round and poke the broken pieces of ice,
In this activity Boris learnt a lot about the qualities of ice; that is is cold, wet, disappears over time and turns into water, is hard but breaks easily (brittle), you can see through it, it melts in your mouth, he learnt he could smash it with a heavy object or by throwing it,and that it was slippery and could be pushed around easily. We spent quite a long time on this activity, we could have spent longer if it had been a cooler day, the ice melted very quickly!! Boris seemed to really engage with the activity and didn't mind his hands getting wet. The activity ended because we got too hot sat outside in the sun.
I have made another one using herbs from the herb garden, it should create an interesting sensory experience when smashed open.
If you have a toddler then I would recommend this activity, it is fun to do and clean, very little clear up and takes very little time to put together (excluding freezing time).
What have you been doing with your toddler recently?
