Keep the kids busy and cool with these fun ways to play with ice.  

You may also enjoy these other backyard summer activities for kids.  

These ways for kids to play with ice are perfect for summer.  

You may also want to check out these water play ideas.  

Fun Ways for Kids to Play with Ice

Have a dinosaur fan?  Set up this simple icy dino dig!

With a few plastic sea animals you can set up this fun frozen ocean animals rescue.

This ice excavation combines learning with a tasty treat!

Grab your penguins and have fun with this ice sensory play that is perfect for toddlers and preschoolers.

These rainbow ice balls make a colorful sensory bin, or toss a few in the kiddie pool for some added fun!

Toddlers will love playing with water and colored ice.

Make your own ice boats and have a race!

Get messy while staying cool with this goop and ice sensory activity.

Decorate the driveway with beautiful ice chalk!

Try this colored ice painting activity and watch what happens as colors swirl and blend together.

For even brighter colors, paint with frozen poster paints!

Make and paint your own frozen rocks; these were done in the winter, but you could also make them in the freezer.

Science Activities with Ice

Mix a little science into your fun and go fishing for ice!

How about a little fizz action?  These ice volcanoes are a fun twist to an old favorite.

Impress the kids and turn water into ice with the touch of a finger!

Or, try freezing different liquids and seeing how they differ as ice.

Frozen-Inspired Ice Activities

Have fun with this “Melt a Frozen Heart” activity!

This Frozen-inspired sensory play adds a touch of glitter to the frozen fun.

Create your very own Olaf sensory bin.

And this Frozen fractals ice sculpture activity looks like fun for kids of all ages.

You may also enjoy:

• Backyard Summer Camp Ideas
• Apple Scented Bubble Dough Recipe
• Preschool Vehicle Activities 

The post 20 Ways for Kids to Stay Cool with Ice first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

(Related post:  Sand Foam)

Frozen Sensory Play

Keeping with the Frozen theme, I wanted that shaving cream good and cold!  So I emptied our ice cube tray into the water table.

(Can you tell we played with dirt in it earlier this week?)

I covered those ice cubes with a can of shaving cream for plenty of snow.  (For younger children, try our taste-safe cloud dough, perfect as pretend snow.)

And, because I was really trying to make a sensory experience my little girl would LOVE, I added plenty of glitter!

I added Anna and Elsa to complete the scene, and then it was time to call out my own little princess.

She loved the frozen shaving cream! 

“Mommy, the ice cubes and shaving cream are cold like real snow!”

As the ice cubes melted the whole thing became a cold, squishy world to play in, with a bit more glitter added from time to time!

At some point she recreated the scene with Anna climbing up the mountain to find her sister…

I think this Disney Frozen sensory play has become my daughter’s favorite sensory tub of all time.

And since it was outside, all we had to do was hose the shaving cream and glitter off when she was finished playing, making it one of my favorites, too!

More sensory play ideas you’ll love:

• 17 Frozen Sensory Play Ideas from The Chaos and the Clutter
• Simple to Make Bubble Dough
• Fairy Soup Pretend Play
• Ivory Soap Explosion
• Lesson Plans for Disney Movies

The post Sensory Play Inspired by the Movie Frozen first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

Looking for something new for the kids to try?  Have a few hot days ahead?  It’s the perfect combination for Colored Ice Painting!

I’ve seen colored ice painting done numerous ways.  I’ve seen some just use an ice cube tray to make the colored ice.  Others use ice pop molds.   I opted for an old ice pop mold, giving the kids a handle to hold their ice, kind of like a paint brush.

To make the colored ice I’ve seen a few different versions, too.  Some mix paint with the water.  I opted for a few drops of food coloring to make each color.  (This momma isn’t one for a big mess, and food coloring rinses off the concrete and kids fairly easily.)

A few hours before our painting adventure I mixed several drops of food coloring with water for each of our colored ice “paint brushes.”  Then I stuck them in the freezer until they were solid.

Once they were ready, I grabbed some paper, called for the kids, and we headed to the porch to paint!

They had fun dabbing and dripping the colors on the paper.  Of course, since they were on ice pop sticks the youngest had to taste them.  (One more reason I used food coloring and not paint!)

We hung our colorful, and very wet, paintings up to dry on the porch rail…

And when they dried they were beautiful!

Have you painted with colored ice before?  How did you make the colored ice?

Looking for other ways to have fun and stay cool?  Check out our water blob tutorial and ice investigation!

The post Colored Ice Painting first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

Since we had so much fun with our earlier ice investigation, I decided this week to make some ice boats for the kiddie pool this week.

I found a few small yogurt containers in the recycling box and filled them partially with water and a couple drops of food coloring.  Then I stuck a straw in it to be a mast.  To keep the mast from floating in the water or becoming crooked I used a little bit of tape to hold the straw in place.  Then I popped them in the freezer.

The next day I cut sails from construction paper and cut 2 small slits in each sail to slip the straw mast through.

They were super excited when they saw the ice boats.

They didn’t last long (It was a pretty hot day out!), but they had fun swirling the boats around and feeling the colder water in the boat’s path.

Have a boatiful weekend!

The post Fun with Ice Boats first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.