Ice Man
Fill three balloons with water (one big, one medium, one small). Let freeze overnight. Peel the balloon off and stack the balls (use salt between to help them melt and stick together. Now let your children clothe him, put a carrot nose, stick arms, etc.
Exploring Ice
Freeze water in different kinds of containers to make various ice shapes. Place the shapes in one or two plastic dishpans filled with water and let the children play with them. Point out how the ice shapes float. Ask: Can you make them sink? Does the water become warmer or colder as the ice melts?
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts Childcare
Block Building, Dramatic Play
Ice Cave: Turn the block center into a wonderful ice cave place for the children! Hang long pieces of white butcher block paper around the edges of the center. Put butcher block paper on the walls. Add lots of blue and white streamers hanging from the ceiling. Put blue nap mats, sleeping bags, other other fabric on the floor, Wrap some of blocks in white paper to look like ice (the kids love to build igloos!) Add in lots of cottonballs and stuffed &/or plastic polar bears, seals, fish, penguins etc!
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts Childcare
Icy Sun Catcher
Materials Needed: shallow tray (eg. styrofoam meat tray or plastic frozen dinner tray), string, leaves, pebbles, twigs, berries, etc.
Fill the tray half full with water. Lay string in tray with about 4 inches in the water and about 6 inches out of the water. Add the little bits of natural items like pretty leaves, berries, twigs or whatever. Lay the tray outdoors on a cold winter night so that water freezes. Remove the frozen contents of the tray the next morning and hang outside in front of a window or from a tree. So pretty when the light catches it! And don't forget those fun science lessons: The water expanded as it froze. At what temperature will it begin to melt? How many days in a row does the sun catcher hang without melting? (Note: if your climate isn't cold enough to freeze at night, you can put tray into the freezer.)
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts Childcare
