Number 81 on our 100 Days of Summer Bucket list is “Discover what’s inside the giant ice cube!”. Doodles and Oodles have been dying to try this out since I showed them a number of similar activities on other blogs and Pinterest! Doodles actually did this at nursery when he was 2 or 3 years old and has often referred to it since! So, yesterday as I was reading down through our bucket list and ticking off a few more items I spotted number 81 and decided that would be our next activity!
What we used:
- basin
- water
- toy dinosaurs
- meat mallet
- kitchen utensils
- spades, spoons, plastic knives
- freezer!!!!
What we did:
- I covered the bottom of our basin with a few centimeters of water and allowed to freeze for a couple of hours. I then added several plastic dinosaurs of various shapes and sizes and filled the basin with water and returned to the freezer.
- 24 hours later we removed the basin from the freezer and ran it under the hot tap to loosen the giant ice cube from the basin.
- We tipped it out onto the table and D and O got busy tapping away at the ice in order to free the dinosaurs.
- Once they had freed the dinosaurs they then set about smashing the larger pieces of ice and mashed up the ice all over the table and the patio.
- They played with the ice for the next hour or so while playing with their cars and trucks and other toys. O even made an ice dinner for us all in her outdoor kitchen area!
I suspect that we will be doing this activity again – great fun and great for gross motor skills development and coordination. We don’t use ice in our sensory play very often but I will be adding it alot more from now on!
Have you tried this activity? How did you get on? Have you other activities involving ice! Let us know, we love to try out new ideas! If you are looking for another ice-related activity maybe stop by My Big Fat Happy Life and try their fantastic Arctic Small World Activity!
Have fun!
Ciara x
Our Little House in the Country 
19 responses to “What’s Inside the Ice-Cube? – Outdoor Summer Fun!”
Very cute! I’ve done this in ice cube tray and the kids loved it! This looks like there are a lot more ways to “dig” them out though!
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What a fun idea!! Thanks for sharing, they look like they had loads of fun!
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It’s great, we have another one in the freezer for tomorrow!!!!
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As soon as Buddy can brandish a hammer, I’m making one!
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What a fun way to cool down! I tried doing something similar with my toddler a few months ago but he wasn’t interested at the time… couldn’t figure out how to get it, and got tired of watching me haha. I think I’ll try again next week and see if he’s more interested now 🙂 Looks like your kids had a great time!
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Hi Yuliya, yes they had a really great time – my 5 yr old probably enjoyed it more than the 2 yr old but they both really enjoyed it.:)
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[…] What’s inside the giant ice cube? : We didn’t get around to this on the day, but D and O thoroughly enjoyed this activity a few days ago – you can see all the fun they had with it in our Giant Ice Cube post! […]
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Trying to figure out ways to keep him busy and outside so I am going to make this right now!!! My mom bought a bag of dinosaurs for $1 and my son hasn’t been interested in them yet so I am going to take them and put them in. I think that this means that he will be entertained and probably want to play with the dinosaurs more after getting them out of the ice 🙂 Thanks for the great idea!
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Hope you have lots of fun with it 🙂
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[…] & sensory in mind. Looking for some garden play inspiration, take a look at her latest post on ‘Whats inside the Ice Cube’ or another favourite of mine ‘Bubble Painting with […]
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What a great idea! I may try this for our grandchildren when they visit next month.
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It’s great fun and easy to prepare. Thanks for visiting 🙂
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This is inspired! I am so doing this with my kiddos next summer – I think they’re still a bit too little right now. And I’ll need to work out how to get a basin in our freezer lol
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[…] This first activity is absolutely brilliant, perfect for a play date or even a homeschool lesson on fossil hunting so it works well for kids of all ages. Click through to find out more about how to create a giant ice cube filled with dinosaurs! […]
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Okay – you convinced me to try this one Ciara! Looks like so much fun. Thanks for sharing with the Love to Learn Linky!
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looking at your web page for a second time.
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[…] Our middle son will have a blast demolishing this giant ice cube by Our Little House in the Country. […]
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[…] What’s inside the giant ice cube? from Our Little House in the Country […]
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