Sensory ice play

This afternoon, we did some sensory ice play.

Two days ago, I froze some water in different shaped beakers and cake tins and added some extra ingredients to try and make different colours, scents and textures.

We ended up with a vanilla and ginger scented ice sheet, some frozen swede cubes, lots of ice cubes, a block of blue marbled ice, a small mound of ice with star anise added to it, and a daffodil suspended in a slightly larger mound.

Jasmine and I began by trying to remove the daffodil from the ice.  I let Jasmine lead the way.  At first, she suggested dropping it from a great height to try and smash it open.

This did not really work.  Neither did hitting it with a variety of hard objects.

After about ten minutes, she asked for a bowl of hot water.

This did work.

 

Though Jasmine noted that once all the ice had melted, the flower was left very "squishy".

 

She then got to work on the star anise, which she said smelled "fresh" but tasted "strange".

 

 

We talked about how the water had changed from liquid to solid and then back to liquid when exposed to extreme temperatures.

 

Meanwhile, Sonny had been exploring...

 

...and making his trains go "bumpety bump bump" over the ice cubes!

The ice cubes were slippery, Jasmine observed.

 

 

She asked for gloves to keep her hands warmer for longer.

 

 

After the majority of the ice had melted, we emptied the bowl and the children used it as a cauldron, filling it with ice cubes, star anise, swede, and gloves and stirring it with a ruler; reciting bits from Room on the Broom and Brave as they stirred.

 

Then, an hour in, they lost interest.  Sonny wandered off and returned on stilts and then roared, as he is prone to doing of late.  Jasmine washed her dolls and then balanced pieces of swede upon them, telling me that they now had "square nipples".

This told me that it weas probably time to finish playtime and pop them in the bath!