Sensory
SummerPreschoolersBaby9 Comments
Chill out with a fun, edible frozen excavation for toddlers! It's a fun way to beat the heat together!
It’s been a hot summer! And we’ve been hunting for ways to cool off while still enjoying lots of outdoor summer fun.
In order to Beat The Heat last week, we froze some berries and dug them out!
Using tools to find hidden treasures is thrilling for a preschooler!
Yummy Edible Frozen Excavation Sensory Play for Kids!
To make your own edible frozen excavation, you’ll need:
- berries or fruits, fresh or frozen
- ice cube tray
- a big freezer-safe container
- water
- a freezer
- toy/child-friendly hammer, pliers, screwdriver, etc.
Henry was so excited to dig out his buried treasure. We got started by making the “buried treasures” together.
We had some leftover fruit in the fridge: blueberries, black raspberries, and grapes. Together, we added them to an ice cube tray partially filled with water and froze them.
I also used a bigger freezer-safe container to make a giant block of “treasure” for Henry to uncover later. If you don’t have an ice cube tray handy, you could just make one or more bigger frozen fruit blocks.
I think Henry snacked on as much of the fruit as he did “burying” them.
Learn more ways to sneak in a healthy snack!
When our “treasures” were mostly frozen, I added them to a cake pan to combine them all together.
I put the cake pan with water in the freezer to get chilled for a little bit before adding the fruit. This method worked really well for my bigger containers.
Digging Out Our Frozen Excavation Together
After a nap that same day, our treasure was ready to be found!
We gathered Henry’s toy tools and set ourselves up on the porch.
Henry’s tools of choice:
- Hammer
- Drill (not shown)
- Pliers
Henry found the hammer worked the best for breaking apart the edible frozen excavation. The pliers worked well for picking out the smashed pieces of fruit.
I really loved watching his experimentation for figuring out what worked best on the frozen excavation process.
As he picked out each piece of fruit, it went directly into this mouth.
Sometimes a nice chunk of ice slipped in, too. It was a great way to cool off!
Try These Frozen Excavation Twists:
How do you add ice to your play on hot summer days? We’d love to check out your ideas!
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Mama Pea Pod says
We could use some of this around here tonight – so hot in the house, poor kids can't fall asleep and it's nearly 11 pm!
Thanks for linking up with us at Outdoor Play! Always love to read your fun ideas.
rachelle | tinkerlab says
yummy!! Melissa, we excavated animals earlier this year!
citysightsforkids says
I love the edible excavation of berries. We have excavated chocolate chips out of cookies. Yum!
Melissa @ The Chocolate Muffin Tree says
Great idea! Love the fruit excavation. What else could you put in ice to excavate?
Mercedes says
What a fun idea! I love it.