Dry Ice Play

**There are precautions that need to be taken when playing with dry ice.  Please only do what you are comfortable with.**

You can read about safe handling of dry ice HERE.

My parents sent us some Omaha Steaks for Christmas and inside the box was some dry ice.  I was so excited to try to FREEZE SOME BUBBLES.  Yeah, that didn't work....at all.  We still had a ton of fun "making it steam", watching it "erupt", and watching the bubbles float on top of the carbon dioxide.  

"making it steam"
In a ventilated room

Watching it "erupt"

I thought maybe we didn't have enough dry ice to get the bubbles to freeze, so we picked up a large block of it today from our local grocery store.  Freeze bubbles - take two........

Very cool watching the bubbles hover

A few of them landed on the dry ice, but NONE of them froze.  BUMMER!!

"Mommy, look at that bubble!!"

We took the dry ice outside and put it in the sensory table (sight and sound are senses, too).  There were water beads nearby, so he decided to add them.  They sizzled and squeaked whenever they touched the dry ice....he thought that was pretty cool.

We flipped a piece over to find that the water beads had created craters.  "Its like the moon, Mommy."

DRY ICE IS FUN!!  

- AK (MESE, MECD)

My Hydraulic Engineer

This is an invitation I have wanted to present to my son for a long time now.

Click HERE to see what inspired me.

In addition I was inspired by moments like this...

 

Water Fountain Play

Its bizarre that on November 25, 2011 we would be able to do water play outside....but it was toasty warm out and we had a blast!  The pictures speak for themselves.  All you need are rain gutters, a hose, and lots of imagination....and no, I do not see this as being wasteful.  :)

 We propped a rain gutter up on his sensory table, ran the hose into the mouth of the gutter, and let the fun begin!

 Of course, you have to drink it, too!!  :)

 Testing out his cars in the force of the water.

"Mommy, can we make a waterfall?"

YES!!

 Our waterfall

 watching the leaves float down the waterfall

 Sometimes they needed a little assistance

He played with this for over an hour!  What fun!

- AK

(MESE, MECD)

Paint Roller Painting

DO NOT TRY THIS IF YOU HAVE CONCERNS ABOUT STAINS.

My son has always loved using the paint roller - even just to pretend.  He played a role in painting his bedroom as well as his playroom.  Recently, he has been taking out the roller to pretend to paint, so I thought I would set up an invitation for him.  We tackled this on a small scale one morning....painting the back porch........

Painting the back porch.

Our back porch is stained and the paint washed off nicely.  We used a basic washable tempera paint.

Today I set up an invitation for him to paint the driveway.  It was a huge hit, but didn't wash off as easily.  There is a very slight stain, but I'm confident it will fade with time.  

I would not try this on surfaces that are highly porous.  

Invitation

.....and then my camera died.

- AK (MESE, MECD)

Ice Play....The Frog Castle

Playing with ice is a favorite activity at our house.  You can see several more ice play ideas at these links…

ICE BRICKS

EDIBLE ABCs and 123s

ICE BLOCKS – AN IGLOO

ALPHABET BLOCKS OF ICE

I let my son choose some new molds for ice play (I showed him pictures and he chose the ones he wanted).  He picked people and frogs.  I love the people because they actually have different emotions, which made for a fun opportunity to talk about emotional intelligence.

The Invitation

People

He counted the people and found the corresponding number.

I asked him how many blue blocks he lined up.  He didn't say a word, just got the #5 and put it next to them.

Three frogs

"Look, Mommy.  I made a frog castle.  This is the frog who lives here."

"Red, blue, red, blue, red blue......  I made a pattern."

"It's a bridge for the people to cross on their way down the path to the frog castle."

- AK (MESE, MECD)

Alphabet Blocks.....of Ice.

Alphabet ice blocks

 Our first play with these perfect cube ice molds ------>  is HERE.  Today, we revisited them in a whole new way - alphabet blocks.  So fun!  We used LETTER JEWELS and simply froze them in the molds.

Check out more alphabet ice play -----> HERE.

  Its an obvious opportunity to learn about hot/cold, melting, properties of water, etc.....but you can also.......

...talk about and build sight words - for older children.

...create the alphabet....or play "insert the missing letter"

...incorporate heavy machinery

"Its carrying the K block"

...smash them......there are NO letter in the ones he smashed

...build CVC words - for older children

Just explore, play, and have fun!!

Some other options...

• put same colored letters together
• stack cubes
• slide them down a rain gutter - "there goes the G block"
• separate into consonants and vowels
• spell name
• match letters to objects with corresponding beginning sounds
• etc................

- AK (MESE, MECD)

Bubble Boy

Today we made a walk in bubble.  This definitely takes two people to make.  All you need is plastic sheeting, duct tape, and a fan.  We sealed the sides with the duct tape, left a hole for the fan and a hole to crawl in and out.  We played in this for so long that by the time we got out it was 6:00 and I had not cooked any dinner - oops - PIZZA NIGHT!  LOL   

This is what I used (Home Depot)
I used one sheet

 My son and I in the bubble.

Hole for the fan, hole to crawl in

 He was naked, so I had to blur out all of the nakedness.  This is inside the bubble.

 So cool!!

 Loving it.  He kept saying "wow, Mommy, its the biggest bubble ever".  :)

Tomorrow, we are planning to paint inside the bubble!!  

 "Hi Mommy"

 We brought in some balls (per request).

 Throwing balls in the bubble - he loved how they slid down the side "like a track".

Throwing ball into the corner.

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE OTHER FUN IDEAS I CREATED WITH PLASTIC TARP
HERE & HERE 

****PLEASE NOTE:  As with all of our activities, this was SUPERVISED.  At no time was any child at risk in any way.  We only encourage parents/caregivers to do what they are comfortable with.****

Tape length-wise for a bubble tunnel

- AK (MESE, MECD)



:)