Ice excavation

Ok so somehow or another I didn't publish this. I don't know how that happened. Anyway it's a little late but oh well maybe idea for you all to use next summer.

Since it's so hot here I decided to do an activity that would keep them cool. We can't do sprinkler or pool or things like that because of the drought. So I went searching for ideas on the internet. This is what I came up with. 

ICE EXCAVATION!!

Things you'll need:

small toys or other small items

plastic container(s)

water

food coloring (optional)

freezer space (this was the problem for me lol)

toys for excavating (I let the kids choose most of those I gave them water bottle full of warm water)

salt (optional, to help the melting go a little faster)

I got some of the toys we used for this at the dollar store. I wanted to put some new toys in there to help keep them excited. I figured if they were working for new toys they'd keep working more so than if I used all toys we already had. I did use some of the toys we already had. I divided the toys into 3 groups (1 for each of the 3 containers I had).

I started by freezing a little water on the bottom of each container.  Once the water had set I put half of the toys in the container and filled the container a little over half full of water. Once that was frozen I put the rest of the toys in and filled the container completely up with water. This whole process took 2 or 3days. So this is a plan ahead activity.

Since we are only going to be living here for a few months then moving on again we didn't put sand in our sand table. Since it's been empty we've used it many times for water activities. This activity seemed like a really good one to use our table. So that's what we did. I put the containers filled ice in the table and let them have fun. I had to help them get ice out of the container. 

 Once it was out I sprinkled a little salt on the ice. They started out with using just forks to try to get the toys out. NOT A GOOD IDEA. No one got hurt but they were a few near missed before I took the forks. Lesson learned LOL. 

 They had fun trying out all kinds of different things. 

They eventually gave up with using the tools. They moved to the patio. Where they dropped their ice chunks a few times to break them up. Then they started drawing pictures with the ice and then watched their drawing disappear. 

After some time they finally got out all their toys. They enjoyed playing with their new and old toys alike. 

Here is a picture of the toys and some of the tools used. The toys are on the table. The tools are in the plastic container.

This activity took up one whole hot afternoon. It was a great way to keep cool when it was so hot.

Hope this gives you some inspiration to get out in the yard and have fun with your kids!