Frozen Fun

I was recently reminded of a very fun activity James and I did last summer (click here to see that post). I decided to replicate it and add few new twists to it, too.

James and I created a frozen block of ice that we filled with colored cubes of ice, plastic gems and some water creatures (that big orange thing is a jellyfish!). The idea was for James to "excavate" the items from their frozen state. :)

Pretty colors in the ice

James LOVED this experiment and tried a variety of techniques to melt the water such as salt, sand, warm water and sugar (obviously I knew ahead of time that some of these wouldn't work, but I wanted James to try them out and discover that for himself!).

Curious hands

Frozen treasures

It was so fun to watch James with this activity because he looked at it so differently now that he's a year older. He definitely took more interest in the science behind it. He quickly realized water and salt were the most effective tools and really went to town with the salt shaker. :)

I laid out a variety of tools as well, such as paint brushes, a sponge, a spatula, a dropper, and a small hammer. (Thanks to The Picky Apple and her post about Ice Smashing for giving me the idea about the hammer!)

We laid chunks of the block out on the patio ledge to watch the sun melt the ice.

We will definitely do this activity again - James learned a few new things and it provided us with 2+ hours of outdoor family fun - oh and it kept us cool on a very hot July day!