Frozen Excavation

This activity is simple, but keeps little ones busy for a good amount of time! As you can see from the first image this activity has been tried and tested many times when I worked for a family in the summer. It was a winner for the younger children and is great for practising fine motor skills and patience as some of the characters are harder to get out than others!

What you will need:
- plastic container filled with water
- toy characters (lego people, dinosaurs, playmobil all work well for this activity - anything that will not rust, or harm being placed in water)
- kitchen utensils - spoons, fork, etc

1. First of all, find some characters that you want to rescue from the ice and place them into a container filled with water.

2. I filled the container about half full so that the characters were not too difficult to get out. Place your lid onto the container and put in the freezer until it has completely frozen. It might be a good idea to prepare this the night before and put the container in the freezer overnight so it is ready for the next day.

3. Once it has completely frozen take the container out of the freezer and remove the ice by flipping it upside down.

4. If it is a nice day, take the ice outside and using the utensils try and rescue the characters. If it is too tricky for younger children, then you can let some of the ice melt first in the sun.

Extra suggestion:

- If you have dinosaurs, you could try and rescue them from a frozen egg. To do this put the dinosaur inside a balloon and fill the balloon with water. Place this in the freezer, remove the balloon and you will have an egg shape!