Lockdown Learning: Ice Decoration

Todays lockdown learning is this beautiful ice decoration. Sent in by qualified teacher and mum of two Emily Cooper. This activity is for children of all ages and can be adapted according to their years curriculum.

What You Need For Your Ice Decoration

A container: Ice cream and margarine tubs (round or square) are perfect for this. Just remember whatever shape you want your decoration, make sure it is shallow enough to put in the freezer. Unless that is if it’s cold enough outside to leave over night.

Items to freeze: Plants and flowers make for vibrant, pretty designs. But why not try themed toys like plastic dinosaurs or different shaped beads.

String

Water

Instructions

Boil the kettle and leave to cool down. This doesn’t have to be done but boiling the water makes the ice clearer.

Find items to freeze! We went on a scavenger hunt while waiting for the kettle to cool down and the kids collected lots of things to freeze. Our favourites were fern, holly, daisies, brown leaves and fir cones.

Place items collected into your chosen container.

Pour the cooled down boiled water into the container so the items are fully submerged.

Place a piece of string in to the water. Making sure it is long enough to dangle over the side of the container. The string should be positioned top centre.

If low temperatures have been forecasted try leaving your tubs outside over night to freeze. Alternatively put it straight into the freezer. I knew it wasn’t going to be cold enough out for ours to freeze, but to add that extra element of magic I let the kids put their tubs outside. I then snuck them in and out of the freezer after bedtime and before breakfast.

Once frozen the ice decoration should slide out of the container like an ice cube.

After Play

To continue the conversation and allow the activity to evolve we hung our decorations up outside. Placing them on a tree, in view of the window. We were then able to watched and comment through out the day as it caught the sunlight and slowly melted.

Emily x

If you liked this activity you may also like our other lockdown learning ideas. Have you tried making your own ice decoration? Let us know your tips, ideas and questions in the comments below.

Happy lockdown learning,

Berrit x

This Post Has 8 Comments

  1. A. Wild

    Such a cool idea!

    1. Booberrit

      And so helpful – I know so many parents are really struggling at this point to come up with lessons, to keep their kids engaged and happy to be learning!

  2. This is such a fun winter craft. We’ve done this a couple of times – although each time have had to put it in the freezer as it wasn’t cold enough to freeze outside. I didn’t realise that using cooled boiled water made the ice clearer though. #kidsandkreativity

    1. Booberrit

      These past few wks have been perfect weather for it and yes such a great tip!

  3. Hannah

    Aww this is so pretty – definitely need to try this! 🙂 #kidsandkreativity

    1. Booberrit

      They’re so much fun to do. We also did some smaller ice cube versions too!

  4. Kerry

    This is something I have planned for the kids in the next week or so as they are currently learning about freezing points and boiling points, so thought it would be a good activity to do. Thanks for the tip about boiled water! Thanks again for sharing at #KidsandKreativity x

    1. Booberrit

      You’re welcome and it’s perfect timing! Is it snowing where you are?

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