Animal Rescue is an ice play. It is a perfect activity for a toddler but the older kids might find it exciting. You can prepare the play with your child or make it for them as a surprise.

Materials: small plastic or rubber toys, plastic bowl/tray, some rescue tools (spoons, tweezers etc.), plastic washbasin, empty squeezable bottle e.g., old dishwashing liquid bottle, plastic sheet or/and towels to protect the floor

Extra (optional): salt, baking soda, food coloring

You can prepare the icy playtime together with the children or make it an exciting surprise!

Preparations

Pour a small amount of water into a plastic tray, add some of the toys and put it into the freezer (or outside if it’s below zero degrees) for a few hours. When the water has frozen, repeat this step until the tray is full and toys are frozen in different layers.

Put some salt and baking soda into small bowls. If you want to make it a bit more colorful, add some food coloring, for example blue and green, to make it look more like a deep ocean. Fill empty bottle/bottles with warm water. If you want, mix again with couple of drops of food coloring.

Turn the frozen tray upside down in a sink and pour some warm water over it, so you can remove the ice from the tray.

Lay the plastic on the floor, put some towels around to protect the floor from getting slippery. Put washbasin in the middle of the towel. Place the frozen piece of ice into the basin. Add the tools and the bottles filled with warm water. Add also the little bowls with baking soda and salt, if you wish to use them.

Let’s play!

Kids can start pouring the warm water on the ice sprinkling some salt and baking soda to make it melt faster and using the tolls to try to break the animals free from the frozen waters.