Easy Nature Ice Sensory Play for Toddlers
Need a fun summer activity for your toddlers? Check out this easy nature ice sensory play idea!
Ice play is so much fun for your little ones, especially during the summer. There is just something about ice that makes little hands go crazy!
I’ve done some ice sensory play before with my kids and they had a blast, so I decided to combine going out in nature and ice together for another fun sensory play idea.
And my kids had a BLAST!
So I wanted to share this DIY frozen nature sensory play idea so your kids can have fun with ice too.
What is Ice Sensory Play?
Ice cube play uses ice with different forms and textures to stimulate the senses.
Ice is an intriguing and ever-changing material for young minds to explore. As it melts, drips, slides, and changes form, it captivates a child’s curiosity and engages their senses.
It also gives interesting visual, tactile, and even auditory experiences as the ice is touched, moved, melted, cracked, and crunched.
My daughter was so interested in why the water looked like it was a crystal when it was melted. My son loved smashing it and hearing the sounds.
Plus, there are so many ice activities for toddlers, it is the perfect toddler playtime activity.
Ice Sensory Play Benefits
Playing with ice has so many benefits for toddlers. Here are a few of my favorite ice play benefits:
Improves Sensory Processing
The cold and wet textures of ice provide strong sensory input that helps develop a child’s sensory processing abilities.
Enhances Tactile Skills
Scooping, pouring, squeezing, and playing with icy materials encourages fine motor development and tactile sensory exploration.
Kids learn concepts like wet/dry, cold/hot, rough/smooth, and hard/soft through hands-on contact.
My kids loved seeing how the ice melted and smashing it with hammers.
Builds Science Concepts
Ice sensory play also helps kids to learn basic science concepts like cold, heat, melting, freezing, water to ice, condensation, temperature change, and states of matter.
Seeing these changes firsthand is fascinating for young minds. Ice rescues are some of the best ice experiments for preschoolers to learn more about science, just like this nature one we made!
Encourages Problem Solving
Trying to get different materials, like grass, rose petals, and rocks out of frozen ice blocks, using tools to chip away ice, or figuring out how to move the ice around engages analytical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Kids learn about cause and effect, trial and error, and creative solution finding as they play with ice.
Promotes Imaginative Play
Ice lends itself to pretend play as kids use it to create imaginary settings and scenarios. This boosts creativity, narrative skills, and socialization.
Your kids will make up so many games with ice cubes! My kids set up shop to sell their icicle flowers and rocks.
How to Make Nature Ice Sensory Play
Now that you know some of the benefits, here is how to make your own nature sensory ice play:
Materials
- Flowers, leaves, pinecones, etc.
- Water
- Ice cube tray
Instructions
Add the nature items into your mold.
Fill with water.
Freeze overnight.
Remove from mold and enjoy!
Other Simple Ice Sensory Activities
There are so many fun ways for kids to play with ice! Here are some easy and fun ice activities for toddlers:
- Fill different containers or bowls with water and let them freeze into ice blocks. Give kids hammers to try to break the ice blocks.
- Make colored ice cubes by freezing water mixed with food coloring or fruit juice. Let kids handle and manipulate the ice cubes while sitting at a sensory table. This is usually such a fun ice cube food coloring experiment for toddlers!
- Hide small toys like mini erasers, plastic insects, or beads inside an ice mold and then give kids pipettes or tweezers to try and dig them out as the ice melts.
- Freeze a giant ice block with various fruits, herbs, flowers or edible glitter suspended inside. As it melts, kids can observe the objects emerge and try tasting. This is another one of the cool science experiments with ice for toddlers to use their sense of taste.
- Insert wood blocks, Lego pieces or other toys in a thin layer of water inside a baking tray and freeze. Kids can then try to pry the objects out to help with their fine motor skills.
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Ice Sensory Play with Flowers Wrap-Up
As you can see, this nature ice sensory play is so easy to set up and your toddlers will spend hours playing with it.
It’s the perfect activity for summer and those hot, sunny days. You can enjoy indoors or outside too!
