Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Kids Activity - Ice Trap

A friend of mine showed me this activity on a blog and I thought it would be an activity that Henry would enjoy. He did, but not really in the way he was supposed to! I wish I could remember what blog I got the idea from so that I could give them credit!

This is an activity that needs to be premeditated because it involves freezing a bowl of water. Gather some of your child's toys from around the house and put them in a plastic bowl (for some reason I think that glass might break in the freezer but I don't know if that's true or if it's my crazy brain playing tricks on me).

Fill the bowl with water and put it in the freezer for a day or until the water is completely frozen. I found that some of his toys floated so I only filled the bowl half way with water then when it froze I added more water to the top so that the toys would be in the middle of the ice.

When the ice is frozen wait for a hot day and take the bowl outside.

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Dump the ice out of the bowl and arm your child with several tools to try to get the toys out.

Henry tried a spray bottle to try to melt the ice....very slow moving...

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Then we tried a garden spade. After that we tried

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a hammer. Any chance Henry gets to use a hammer he is all over it.

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At this point he started to get frustrated so I suggested to him that we put the ice back in the bowl and drop it. He loved that! After a couple drops on the concrete, Success!

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After this, Henry proceeded to pick up the chunks of ice and throw them as hard as he could onto the concrete until the toys broke free. I did not take pictures of this part of the activity.

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I'm no expert, in fact far from it, but I have to believe that this activity is not only fun but helps you child learn cause and effect and problem solving.

2 comments:

Papa and Grandma Cox said...

That was a great idea ! Henry looks like he enjoyed it.

Grammie said...

I think that would be fun at any age. Freeze Matt's toys next and let him at 'em.