Thawing a Frozen Heart: Sensory Science for Kids

It's no secret that my kids love Frozen! In fact, their favorite part of the movie is when Anna gets turned into ice and they come to the realization that "an act of true love will thaw a frozen heart". Since Valentine's Day is coming up, I thought it would be fun to do a sensory and science activity where they can thaw Anna's frozen heart! 

(If you're new to the blog, also check out our Frozen Learning Pack and Frozen Alphabet Cards!)

Thawing a Frozen Heart: Sensory Science for Kids

This activity was so easy to set up, and it was great for introducing my 3 year old to science concepts such as phases of matter (ice/ water), temperature (hot/cold) and buoyancy (float/sink), all while pretending she was rescuing her favorite Frozen character, Anna!

What you'll need:
-ice cube tray
-water
-hearts cut out of red construction paper

1 - First I cut out 16 hearts from construction paper. (however many ice cubes your tray holds) The fastest way to do this is to take one sheet of red construction paper and fold it in half and then in half again and keep folding until you get a square small enough to fit in an ice cube tray. Then you can cut several hearts with one cut. I got all 16 in one shot by doing this.

2 - Fill the ice cube tray with water and add a heart in each space. 

3 - Let freeze overnight.


The first thing I did was let my daughter touch and play with all the frozen hearts. This was a great sensory experience and she really enjoyed it!



Then, we tried several ways to thaw the hearts: 

1- Putting one frozen heart in a glass of water and letting it sit there. (You can even have one glass of warm water and one with cold water and see which one melts faster)



2- Putting one frozen heart on a plate and using a dropper to pour drops of water on it.



3 - We also tried thawing one heart by holding it in our hands and letting body heat melt the ice.


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4 - Another thing that we didn't try but would have been fun is adding salt to the frozen hearts and observing what happens.

The heart that was floating in the glass of water finally thawed and we realized it wasn't floating anymore. It sank to the bottom! Apparently, paper hearts do not float.



More Frozen Ice Activities:
Frozen Fractals Art Activity by A Little Pinch of Perfect
Melting Elsa's Frozen Hands by Happy Hooligans
Frozen Fractals Ice Sculptures by Happy Hooligans
Elsa's Ice Castle Science Play by Preschool Powol Packets
Frozen Water Magic Science by Preschool Powol Packets
Sven & Kristoff Ice Block Races by Mom Endeavors
Frozen Ice Castles from Sand Castle Molds by Kids Activities Blog
Frozen Sensory Tub by Nurture Store
Frozen Sensory Play with Shaving Cream & Ice by Learn Play Imagine
Invitation to Build: Elsa's Ice Palace by Left Brain Craft Brain (not real ice but just as cool)

Totschooling

Viviana is a blogging mom to a toddler, a preschooler, and a kindergartner, sharing ideas and resources for early education. She specializes in unique, hands-on printable activities that are educational, fun and inspire creativity in young minds.

2 comments:

  1. This looks so fun! My daughter will love it. She is Frozen obsessed too...

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  2. I love the pretend play aspect of this activity Viviana. Doing Science while rescuing a favourite character is just awesome!

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