Coloured ice play

So I thought I blogged about this a few weeks ago... but I didn't. Blame baby brain... Anyway summer is nearly over but here is a really fun activity to do outside when it's hot, or even inside (on a smaller scale!) if its raining. 

It does take a little prep work as you need to make the ice cubes in advance - so not very complicated but just a bit of forward planning. 

What we used:

- selection of ice trays

- food colouring

- paddling pool

- water 

- enthusiastic toddler

A few days before I thought we'd do this I made up a batch of coloured ice cubes - just water and food colouring so perfectly safe if Doof decided to eat them. I made a tray of each colour which produced enough ice cubes for at least 3 different sessions (or 1 mammoth one I guess!). The advantage is once they're frozen you can leave a bag on the freezer and then they're instantly ready when you want them :)

Not the neatest as I used a variety of different shaped ice trays!

 

On the next sunny day (which actually ended up being a week later) we filled up the paddling pool, emptied the ice cubes into a tupperware and let Doof explore...

First he started to pick the cubes out one-by-one 

 Then he got impatient and tipped the whole box upside down

 Next he enjoyed swirling and splashing the water and watching the colours come off the melting ice cubes

Then he picked all the cubes out of the water (well, the ones which hadn't already melted!) and put them back in the tupperware 

 Before emptying them all again :)

And splashing around until they all melted

 

All-in-all it was a really fun activity, especially when it's hot. Doof had fun exploring the different texture and temperature of the ice cubes, as well as seeing the different colours. As he gets older we'll be able to talk more about each colour and different object states (eg solid/liquid). So educational aswell as fun :)

Next time I might freeze some objects inside the cubes so they are released as the cubes melt. Freezing rice in the middle could make a nice sensory activity as once the ice melts you'll be left with a rice 'beach' and melted water for the 'sea'...