Welcome to winter! Where kids are going crazy from being cooped up, you're going crazy because your kids are crazy, and you're looking for anything to keep them busy. Our theme for the month of January at daycare is snow with a focus this week on building (to grow critical thinking skills, problem solving, and fine motor skills). I figured ice went with snow, so Monday morning I froze colored water (these are our favorite food colors to use for projects).
I used a variety of things: muffin tins, ice cube trays, our cocoa bomb molds, bread pans, an old 6x6 Pyrex dish, cupcake holders. I went with anything I could easily grab out of our cupboards. I put everything on two large cookie sheets, walked them outside to our deck, let it all sit in the cold for an hour, and we had colorful ice blocks!
Once the ice blocks were good and frozen, I took them out, put them in a 28 qt. Sterilite container, stuck mittens and gloves on the littles, and let them play and explore. About 20 minutes in, they requested snow to go with their ice and made a castle with it all.
This simple activity gave me over thirty minutes of peace and gave the kids an opportunity to play and discover in a new way.