Ice

Party season is here...we have the Halloween party in October, a Thanksgiving feast in November, and a Holiday party in December.

And what do we always have after parties?  A freezer full of extra ice!

Today, we needed some extra space in the freezer (Monday is grocery shopping day for the kids' lunches!).  We had a bag of ice that needed to go bye-bye (still not sure where it came from--party season isn't here yet!), so we thought we could put it in the sensory table when the kids woke up from their nap.

When it was time to unload the ice into something, I used the closest empty container I could find, and it came in the form of a large black tub from Home Depot laying around in the yard.  If you don't have some of these in your preschool, they are so versatile, sturdy, and cheap!  I think they are for mixing cement or something. 

I digress.  So the tub was on the ground and I thought I needed a way to distract the kids from just jumping into the icy bath.  So I suggested they get some shovels and haul the ice to the sandbox.  They jumped on that idea!  And the sound of shovels digging into the ice was a nice sensation!

They got really busy, and once I referred to them as "the ice carriers", they walked around bragging "we're the ice carriers" or "ice carriers coming!"  It was wonderful.

You can just see how focused they were on the task at hand.

Back and forth they went, carrying ice all the way across the yard.

It was a wonderful feeling to slosh the icy water around, too.  Not too cold, but cool enough on this warm afternoon!

They seemed surprised when I told them they could drop the ice anywhere because it would just melt and turn back into water.  Ak created a little pile on a sunny patch of cement.  It actually stayed frozen for a long time!

This activity lasted at least twenty or more minutes.  Just a small bag of ice turned into an amazing, engaging activity for the kids.

*Steph*

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Upcoming posts:

• Wrestling at Beansprouts
• Stephanie's shopping cart and stroller issue