Ice Play

We've has such a long cold spell here in the U.K that it feels as though we've been living under a sheet of ice now for quite a few weeks. 

Instead of staying inside and being wary of the ice we've taken inspiration from Scandinavian pre-schools and headed out in the ice and cold. 

During the winter months in Scandinavia months on end are often icy, cold and snowy. It's a way of life here and the mentality is that we can't just stop life because of it. Instead ice on the ground is an important lesson for young children to learn. How do they move on the ice? What do they need to wear on a very cold day? What will melt the ice? What's the best way to warm up on a freezing day? - All important life lessons!

As a family we've been getting well wrapped up and heading out into our local area. Visiting the moors and exploring the puddles on our street that have turned into ice. It's opened up lots of facinating discussions and experiments. 

Here I share with you a list of other ways you can explore the ice together:

• Look for icicles and talk about how they've been formed
  Making coloured ice by adding food colouring to trays of water and freezing over night
  Explore what’s happened to your local body of water/ Where have the puddles gone?
  Hammer and ice play
  Artic ice play with small world
  Do some potion play and then leave the wonderful potion to freeze and explore it again but in frozen form
  Create a beautiful ice lantern with collected natural foliage
  Make Ice suncatchers
  Use water colours to paint on the ice and watch the colour as it beautifully moves through the ice
  Add ice to the bath and see how long it takes to melt
  Exploring texture and touch of ice
  Adding ice to your glass of water. How does it change it?
  Exploring ice in your bird bath
  Research what glacial ice worms are
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For more inspiration and weekly nature play ideas all year round do check out my Re-Wilding Wanderlust Nature Study Programme here