Summertime Outside Ice Play

On a hot summer day, what does one do for “Princess Preschool”? We play with ice! Building with ice is not easy. My daughter wanted to make an Ice Princess’ castle (as my daughter intended), but it sure is fun to try your hand in stacking the sliding blocks during an outside ice play exploration!

Strawberry initially insisted that we make Elsa’s frozen ice palace. She quickly discovered, however, that the slippery blocks of ice were not going to stay on top of each other. No matter what we tried, the ice cubes slipped around and around the back deck. We did not build with ice. Despite the lack of actual building taking place during our play time today, it was delightful to both Strawberry and her baby sister.

Toddler Kitty was delighted by the ice cubes. For nearly twenty minutes, both kids sat and stacked and slid the ice around. Kitty tried tasting it. Strawberry tried sticking it down her shirt (to cool off?). Both kids slid it around on the deck. Playing with ice is a perfect sensory activity for a hot summer’s day.

It was not a complicated project, but even as the kids ran around the yard for the next hour, they kept coming back to check on the progress of the ice. Had it melted yet? In that sense, it became a mini-lesson on states of matter as well!

The next time you need a simple outside activity for a summer day, take out the freezer’s ice tray and see what your kids will come up with! Next time, we may try adding our fake snow to the mix and see if that helps keep the slippery ice together!