This is a wonderful summer activity for your kids to do on a really hot day.
My kids…ready to attack the block of ice and find all the treasures.
Supplies:
- Large bowl or Tupperware (if you want to make it on a smaller scale you can use pie or cake pans).
- Water
- Little toys, coins, buttons, marbles, sea shells, etc to freeze (ever wonder what to do with the junky happy meal toys? Save them for this activity).
- Warm water (I’ve seen people let their kids use hammers…but since I have two kids…I’m not comfortable with them using a hammer…it’s an accident waiting to happen).
- Fun gadgets to use to melt the ice with water…like a spray bottle, medicine droppers, turkey baster, measuring cups…etc.
- Food coloring (optional) – I added a tiny bit of food coloring to give the ice it’s blue coloring.
Directions:
This activity takes about a day or two to plan. Fill your bowl ¼ full and drop in a few toys and freeze. Repeat this process until the bowl is full. I froze my bowl of ice in 4 stages to ensure that the treasures were properly dispersed throughout the ice…rather than having them all sink to the bottom. Add one of two drops of food coloring if you wish to add color. To remove the block of ice, turn it over onto a cookie sheet and just run a little bit of warm water on it. Then place the block of ice either on the ground or a table and let your kids have fun rescuing their toys and finding some fun treasures. My 5 year old loved that I put real money in there for him to put in his piggy bank.
These are all the treasures I used.
Using a turkey baster to melt the ice.
They both had lots of fun and spent a good 20-25 minutes melting the ice.
My daughter thought it would be fun to eat her way to the treasures.
My son decided it would be quicker to pour the whole pot of water on the ice.
Both my children absolutely loved this activity. It was a big hit at my house and I’m definitely planning on doing it again with some “new” treasures.