Activities


Ice Rescue!

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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:

  1. Place a small toy, e.g. lego, plastic dinosaur, into a recycled container, or jelly/ice mould.

  2. 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.
  1. Place the container/mould in the freezer.

  2. Leave the water in the freezer for a few hours to freeze. Leaving it to freeze overnight is a good idea.

  3. Take the ice out of the freezer. Pop it out of the container/mould into a large plastic box/bowl.

  1. 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?

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