Melting Ice

I saw the neatest summer idea on Counting Coconuts (click here) for "frozen fun" so when my boys wanted to freeze cereal and make ice pucks (another Curious George inspiration) I decided to combine the ideas.  The boys helped me to layer water and freezable items, mostly their sea life models, in a large bucket.  I wish I had re-read the Counting Coconuts post about adding colored ice cubes to the mix.  Her ice blocks look really neat with the sun shining through all the colors.  But when you start a project on a whim, as many of ours are, you make due with what you've got.

The boys made their own smaller blocks of ice using cups, beans, and cereal, an interesting mix but that's what suited their fancy.  They were fascinated by the textures of the frozen cereal and the way the beans expanded and shriveled.

They experimented with different methods of retrieving their sea life from the ice, such as the ones suggested on the blog mentioned above (salt, sand, sugar, utensils).  They also tried different temperatures of water and methods of applying it to the ice (pouring, different sizes of water squirters).

They noticed all kinds of things in the 2 1/2 hours they spent on this project.  They especially liked the tunnels that began to form in the ice.