Something that my kiddos have gotten really into this summer is ice play. To be honest, I never thought about freezing toys before. Why would you put a perfectly good toy in a block of ice?! I just didn’t understand it… that is, until I did it. And, boy, let me tell you. It is pure magic.
Watching my kids so incredibly engaged in such a simple activity was amazing. They were squirting and pounding that ice with intense focus. And every released animal was a victory worth sharing! Ever since our first freezing experiment, we have frozen animals at least once a week! It seems that my kiddos are always asking to freeze something different. No, surprise, the request is always some kind of animal! We’ve frozen pandas, farm animals, African animals, dinosaurs and so much more!
Most recently, I let me 5 year old choose what to freeze and the assortment of animals was amazing! He had giraffes, pandas, dinosaurs, farm animals, a sea star, dolphins, an elephant and more. He sat by the bin of animals and carefully selected all that would go into the ice trays. That cutie even poured all of the water in! He was so proud of himself! And I was immensely proud of him.
This was not an activity that I ever imagined him being so drawn to. He is much more into books, carefully building, and organizing his animals. I actually thought that he would be mad the first time that I froze animals! To my surprise, he was enticed by the activity and was eager to free the animals. Mr. 5 was amazed at the liquid concoction that helped to free the animals and wanted constant refills!
I knew this ice activity would be a hit with Mr. 4 (how is he already 4?!). He loves building, breaking and anything involving water! He was mesmerized by the water element and loved getting to use the squirt bottle and eye droppers. Side note: these bottles are amazing! I bought them from Hobby Lobby in the baking aisle. They are actually meant for icing cookies and such, but are absolutely perfect for freeing animals!
Even the baby got in on the action, pounding the ice cubes and pulling animals out! One thing is for sure, this will always be a go to summer activity for us!
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Materials
- Animal figures
- Square silicone ice cube molds (You can use a muffin tin or even a loaf pan if you don’t have silicone molds. They are just a little harder to get out of the pan)
- Water
- Squirt bottles (not the same ones I used, but the closest I could find on Amazon)
- Eye droppers
- Salt
- Kid’s hammer or wooden mallet
How To
This is a simple activity to set up that you can actually get the kids involved in!
- Choose your animals to freeze
- Place an animal inside each ice cube spot
- Pour water to cover the animals (it’s ok if a little bit of each animal is still sticking out)
- Carefully place the ice cube tray in the freezer (I recommend placing the tray on a cookie sheet so it doesn’t move as much and to catch any water spills)
- Let the animals freeze for a few hours (or overnight)
- Pull out the squirt bottles and combine warm water with a little salt in each (you don’t have to use a ton!)
- Unmold the ice cubes and place them outside with the squirt bottles, eye droppers and kid hammers
- Let your littles free the animals!
*If you are worried about using salt water, you can simply use regular warm water. It will just take your kiddos a bit longer to melt each cube, which might be a good thing (wink, wink)!
Free the Animals!
It is so much fun to watch little kids do this activity. During the unstructured hot summer, it grabs their attention and causes them to slow down a bit and focus. Plus, playing with ice can cool them down too!
If you don’t have silicone molds, you can use muffin or mini muffin tins. You just need to let them melt for a few minutes before trying to pull them out of the molds. This is another fun silicone mold to try!
This past week when we freed the animals, I set the cubes out in the water table. It was the perfect vessel for extended play! Once they had freed all of the animals, I went ahead and added water for animal water play. My littles kept right on using the eye droppers (seriously amazing for fine motor work!). They squirted the animals, each other, and even used the droppers to fill buckets and clean the side of the house, haha! Needless to say, this ice activity extended way longer than simply freeing the animals. I will probably always use the water table for our future ice melting fun!
Related: Are your kiddos huge water fans? Check out this simple and engaging water play activity!
If you are spending any time at home this summer, please give this activity a try!
If you are looking for another way to add a little structure to your wild summer days, check out our super fun Recycled Egg Carton Trains!
As always, thank you for reading sweet friend! You can find us over on Pinterest and see what we are up to on Instagram. Give us a follow to see what is enriching and engaging my kiddos!
