Ice Cream Day!

We loved celebrating ice cream day today! After our morning routine, we talked about different flavors of ice cream, then we filled out a graph as we counted how many people liked certain flavors. It turns out that only one of us likes mint chocolate chip, and vanilla is the winner!

Right after our graphing activity, we began our own ice cream making experiment. We gathered a big bowl of ice, resealable bags, salt, sugar, cream, and three flavorings- cocoa powder, vanilla extract, and cinnamon. Our first recipe was for vanilla ice cream. We inspected the ice cubes we'd be using, then began measuring.

We measured 1/2 cup of cream, added 1 tablespoon of sugar, and then 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract. We poured the mixture into a bag and sealed it tight, then put it in a bigger bag with lots of ice and 2 tablespoons of salt.

Next, we made the same recipe except we added 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon instead of vanilla. Last, we added 1/2 teaspoon of cocoa powder instead of vanilla. Measuring was fun, but everyone's favorite activity was shaking up the bag.

First we rolled and shook it on the tabletop, but when the large bag sprung a leak, we shook everything up in a bowl.

It worked very well and we noted how the texture of the ice cream changed from liquid to a somewhat squishy solid. We put the ice cream baggies in the freezer to eat after our lunch.

Once the salty water was cleaned up, we decided to play ice cream delivery and the children made train tracks to bring ice cream from one place to another.

After that, the older children and I played pretend ice cream shop. We role played being the customer and being the ice cream server.

Later, we went outside and I blew bubbles for the children to chase. Even though the day was cloudy, the bubbles looked colorful blowing in the breeze and the children loved running after them over and over.

After bubbles, we played ball and took a few minutes to water the garden and picked a few cucumbers and zucchini that were ready.

Before long it was time for lunch, so we enjoyed homemade vegetable soup and bread and followed it up with a taste test of our ice cream flavors. We decided that our ice cream was the best we ever had!

We finished the day by reading Rain Babies since it started raining in the afternoon.

See you tomorrow!

#cookingwithchildren #outdoorplay #grossmotorskills #earlymath #earlyscience #measuring #gardening