Ice Sculptures

Inspired by all the local artists' Ice Sculptures, and feeling like I haven't done enough 'wintery' stuff with the kids this year, we decided to create our own icy art. We started by collecting some containers to be filled with water. The kiddo's love playing with water so they had a blast filling the containers. Although little Monkey (who just turned 2) enjoyed dumping the containers a bit more than filling. The older two loved adding and mixing food coloring in.  We then we put them outside. (We had a winter storm advisory So I was sure they would be frozen by morning)  It was a great opportunity to talk to the kids about the phases of matter, and how the water would expand as it freezes.

The next day the real fun began! The Kids could hardly wait to get all the shapes out of their containers which to my surprise was very easy. (There were a few stubborn ones, but they came out just fine after running some warm water over them.) 

Little Monkey kept saying, "Ice! this is great!"  Rane (5) said, "This is really amazing," I was happy that they were so entertained by something so simple.

                                                        

Even Barbie came to join the fun! They also liked when it started to melt and the ice got slippery. I had to get my son Rye (4) his own cookie sheet to shoot his melting ice around on. (Rane was getting a bit up set that he kept knocking her beautiful ice sculptures.)


                                                  
This was so much fun!  I think we might try it again this summer when we need a little ice to cool us off.



After most the ice had melted we had fun washing the dishes we used to make the ice.  Some of the food coloring was still in the cups, so it colored the soapy water (even more fun!).  This was an activity I know they would love to do again and again.

(When you're playing with ice make sure you have a towel handy! The older kids also wanted some gloves after a few minutes of playing.)