Ice Mountains

I have known about this activity and have wanted to do it forever but for some reason always put it off. Finally I managed to get motivated and do it for the kids!

Those are big blocks of ice with toys frozen on the inside! I filled a gallon freezer bag halfway with water and put it in the freezer. When it was frozen I put little plastic animals in with a little bit of water. I let that freeze then I filled the rest up with water and let that freeze. Then I cut the bags off and taadaa! The bags were a giant pain in the butt. Next time I might get disposable foil pans and try it in that. The bags shifted a lot and storing them was tricky. But the end result was awesome. 

I gave them little hammers and squirt bottles of water and let them have at it. They absolutely loved getting to use a tool and figuring out how to get the toys out. 

The funniest part to me was watching each kid explore this activity in their own way:

Saffryn was so practical. She knew she had to get the toys out so she did it as quickly and efficiently as she could. It was completely about the end result of getting the toys out. 

For Colt this was a very sensory oriented experience. He put his hands on the ice, his feet on the ice, he licked the ice, he smashed the ice, he ate the ice. For him it was so satisfying to explore it using all of his senses!

For Pierce it was a perfect time to use his imagination. The whole time he was working on his ice he was telling a story about being trapped in the icy mountains. We were all "hiking" when we found animals trapped. His little narrative was so fun to listen to. He was also the slowest to get his animals out. He enjoyed the process not necessarily the finished result. 

And we can't forget about this little guy:

I didn't make an ice block for him and had originally planned to do this activity when he was napping but life happens and he was awake. But the big kids were good about letting him come squirt some water on their ice blocks and he was so proud of "helping" them. Then he would take his little mower around for a while and come back to "help". 

This is such a fun summer activity and the kids have already been asking for me to make the "ice mountains" again!!!