Ice Gems

The Guide

Set up:

• Collect your food coloring/watercolors and some containers in which you can freeze water. If you have shaped ice molds, they produce rather eye-catching results. But, you can use regular old ice trays, muffin tins or even recycled containers just as well to freeze gems.
• Put a few drops of color into each container, and then pour in the water. If you want even color, mix water and color first, and be generous with color. Adding a wee bit of salt or dish soap to the mix can help keep color even, too.
• Freeze for about 24 hours.
• Take them out of the freezer (or bring them indoors from the freezing cold) and give them a minute to warm up, then pop them out into a bowl.
• Take your gems outside and let the play unfold!

Invitation:

A few ways to spark engaging gem play:

• To add a little extra intrigue, hide the treasures and “stumble” upon them.
• Explore gems using all of your senses (avoid taste if you used the dish soap trick!) Beware the lasting impact of food coloring, too!
• Talk about what you see, feel and hear as you play.
• If it’s frigid out, put on mittens and use sticks or spoons to move gems around.
• Arrange your gems to create beautiful designs.
• Keep busy transporting, hiding and even building with gems.
• If you have snow or sand around, place the gems just so to create sparkling masterpieces or to transform a snow fort or sand structure into a winter castle.