Ice Rescue!
Freeze small toys in water and challenge your kids to rescue their toys from the ice.
This is a great sensory play activity that provides opportunities for developing language skills, scientific understanding and problem solving.
What you need:
-
Clean, recycled plastic food containers, or jelly/ice moulds (to make ice in)
-
Small, freezer safe, toys
-
Water
-
A large plastic box/bowl (to put the melting ice cubes in)
-
Paint brushes, scoops, tongs and/or pipettes
-
Small container of water (to help melt the ice)
-
Optional: Food colouring (to make coloured ice cubes)
What to do:
-
Place a small toy, e.g. lego, plastic dinosaur, into a recycled container, or jelly/ice mould.
-
Half-fill the container, or mould, with water, making sure that the toy is covered.
Top tip:
- To make coloured ice, stir a few drops of food colouring into the water before pouring it into the container.
-
Place the container/mould in the freezer.
-
Leave the water in the freezer for a few hours to freeze. Leaving it to freeze overnight is a good idea.
-
Take the ice out of the freezer. Pop it out of the container/mould into a large plastic box/bowl.
- Use paint brushes, scoops, tongs and small amounts of water etc. to rescue your toys from the ice.
Top tips:
- Encourage your child to wear a waterproof apron and to roll their sleeves up before they play with the ice and water.
- Have a towel ready for your child to dry themselves with when they have finished playing.
- If you are setting up the activity indoors, place the box/bowl on a towel or wipeable, waterproof surface - things will get messy and wet!
Activity develops:
-
Fine motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination as your child uses scoops, tongs etc. to try to retrieve toys from the ice.
-
Language and communications skills. This sensory play activity provides lots of opportunities for developing language and communication skills.
-
Encourage your child to:
-
Build their vocabulary as they listen to and use new words, e.g. pour, scoop, cold, melt, liquid, solid
-
Ask for objects that they want to play with.
-
Talk about what they are doing.
-
Use their senses to investigate the world around them.Talk about how the ice looks and feels.
-
-
Scientific knowledge and understanding This activity provides opportunities for:
-
observing and investigating how water turns to ice and then melts again (changing materials)
-
using thinking skills to try and solve problems
-
making observations and predictions e.g what happens if I add water to the ice?
-
Other posts you might like: