Spring Break Fun with the Kiddlets – Excavating Dinosaurs from Ice

Where my dinosaur lovers at (small sticky hands across the world go up)?  Keep those pint sized paleontologists happy this spring break with a dinosaur ice excavation.  One of my all time favorite kids crafts!  All you need is a freezer, water and toy dinosaurs for tons of outdoor kid fun.  Plus this experiment gives children interested in dinosaurs the chance to really learn about not only excavating dinosaurs, but also the science behind melting and breaking down ice.

My toddler loves her some dinosaurs. That being the case I am often looking for dinosaur related activities for her. We have been to dinosaur parks, made dinosaur eggs, call broccoli dinosaur trees, but her favorite activity was the time we excavated dinosaurs from a block of ice.

I realize in most of the country it is not warm enough to put your kids in a swimsuit and sit them on the porch with ice and a toothbrush, but that is why I live in Texas. Actually, it is not quite warm enough for this here yet either. Don’t let a little thing like weather keep your toddler from excavating dinosaurs. This activity can be done in a bathtub too.

SUPPLIES
Plastic Dinosaur Toys
Tupperware Bin
Freezer
Water
Blue Food Coloring (optional)
Excavating Tools (toothbrush, squirt bottle, toy hammer, shovel – whatever you have)

The hardest part about this activity was finding the room in my freezer. It works best if you freeze in batches. The plastic dinosaurs will float to the top if you try and freeze the whole tub at once. I added a little blue food coloring to my water for extra excitement.

The bigger the freezer, the bigger your tub can be and as always, especially when dealing with kid friendly dino digs – bigger is always better!

Once your block of ice is frozen solid pop that baby in the pool or tub and load your toddlers up with excavation tools.

STallulah soon discovered that water was the best tool of all for freeing her dinosaurs from their icy prison. We had chats about paleontology, melting ice, cold vs. hot – many a good lesson can be learned with this activity.

Tallulah spent a good hour or more working on getting her dinosaurs out which in toddler time is like days.

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Posted March 13, 2012 & filed under Crafts, Kids, Kids Crafts.