Easy Ice Ornaments For Kids

Time required: 1 hour hands-on + overnight hands-off

Ages: 3+

Supplies needed:

• Leaves, twigs, greenery, berries, etc. Anything you can find outside!
• Shallow dishes or pie tins. You’ll need 1 for every ornament you’re making
• Water to fill the dishes
• Pipe cleaners, or string or twine
• Small gardening shears for cutting leaves or twigs (optional)

• Look for leaves, twigs, greenery, berries, anything you find! Bring a pair of garden shears just in case you need them. This is a great opportunity to teach your kids about what plants are around your house if you know! I got the Wild Herbs for Little Foragers book by Janice Marsh-Prelesnik for Fletcher and it’s been an amazing learning resource for both of us!

• Bring the shallow dishes and a pitcher of water outside. Place the shallow dishes where you’ll leave them to freeze overnight. Fill the dishes with water.
• Experiment by using different size dishes and different shapes and allow your kids to observe the differences in freeze times! We also used different amounts of water to experiment with. We had a couple that never froze all the way and Fletcher thought it was so cool!
• TIP: It’s much easier to fill the dishes with water outside than filling in the house and trying to carry them outside!

• Get creative with how you layer and arrange them, depending on what you want to show more prominently in your ice ornament. Remember, however you lay your nature items is exactly how they’ll freeze so make sure you like your arrangement before leaving them to freeze.

• Make sure it lays at least an inch towards the center of the ornament so it really holds once frozen. Submerge the pipe cleaner or string into the water as best you can. Drape the remaining pipe cleaner or string outside of the dish so it doesn’t get frozen into the ornament.

• This will depend on how cold it is outside and how shallow the pans are. Let it sit overnight and if it still isn’t frozen completely the next day, let it sit out longer if freezing temperatures will continue, or place the dish in the freezer to finish freezing.
• Experiment by moving the dishes to different areas of your yard and allow your kids to come up with new ideas for getting them to freeze.
• Did the ornaments start to freeze but then stopped? Why did that happen? Was the sun shining on them?
• Do you need to continuously move them to shady spots during the day to allow them to continue freezing?

• If you used a non-stick dish to freeze your ice ornaments, they should pop right out once frozen. If you’re having a little trouble removing your ornament from the dish, soak a washcloth with hot water and rub it around the outside of the dish until it loosens. You could also run the dish under some warm water, just make sure you have your hand over the ornament so when it comes out, you’re ready to catch it!

• Hang your ice ornament wherever you can best admire your work. They look beautiful in trees, but you could also hang in on your porch if you have the hardware already set up. Enjoy the ice ornaments for as long as they last. Make sure to get a picture!

• Experiment by hanging ornaments in different places in your yard and after a couple of hours, allow your kids to observe the differences they see. Here are some things you might see and ask your kids:
  • Are some melted while others are still intact?
  • Are some slowly dripping water from them?
  • Is the sun shining on the ones melting?
  • Are the ones still intact in the shade?
  • What causes them to melt?