create (with kids): ice cube play-dough

Are you always in need of another easy art activity that can you can make from things in your kitchen? Hmm... maybe that's just me. Well, just in case, here's a great- Simple- art activity for hot days, rainy days, and all of those days in-between. It involves flour, salt, water and, of course, Ice.

 The first step is to pour 1/2 cup of water in a plastic container. I tinted our water with food coloring, but you could do without any coloring. Freeze the water until solid.

 

In a large bowl combine a cup of flour and 1/2 cup salt. Add the ice cube, then let the kiddos play with it as it melts. Our ice took a long time to melt- well, longer than my three-year-old's attention span- so I ended up using a meat mallet  to break it up into smaller pieces. Next time I'm considering freezing the water in ice cubes versus one big block- or mixing it outside and not in the air conditioning (smile).

 Eventually it will be all melted and you will have play-dough. Pretty nifty, eh? Keep mixing...

...and mixing. Some big hands will probably be needed to mix and knead it at the end until it's smooth.

Then play! This was Isia's favorite activity all week. We poked it with chopsticks, rolled it into logs, and stored it in a ziploc bag between explorations. Isia did find out the hard way that adding more water- as in dumping an entire drinking glass over it- will "melt" it unusable, but that's part of the process, right?