This is a seriously cool craft! We know we've got a lot of ice in the winter...but do we know what to do with it?Imagine sunshine sparkling through a translucent mobile made of ice and colourful natural objects such as berries and leaves. You likely have everything you need at hand to complete this activity. Adult supervision recommended.
Materials for your ice mobile
- Leaves, nuts, berries, other interesting found natural objects
- 3 saucers, bowls, jam jar lids or pastry cutters
- Tray or jelly-roll pan (cookie sheet with sides)
- String, twine or recycled holiday curling ribbon
- Freezer
What to do
1. Collect natural objects such as leaves, nuts and berries from your garden. (Don’t eat the berries!)
Things to think about
Take care when collecting natural objects. Do not collect from National or Provincial Parks and only collect on private property if you have permission. Only take what you need and leave the rest for local wildlife - those berries and seeds are an important winter food source for birds and animals.
2. Place 3 or 4 jam jar lids, shallow bowls or pastry cutter shapes on a tray or jelly-roll pan. Arrange the shapes into a row on the tray leaving small gaps in between.
3. Choose a few natural objects that will fit nicely into the shapes. You may want to trim them to fit. Place your chosen natural items in the middle of each shape.
4. Now take a piece of string, garden twine or recycled ribbon and lay it over the shapes to link them together, making sure that the string goes right into the shapes (which will allow the string to freeze into each one) and leaving enough at one end to be able to hang your mobile when finished.
5. Carefully fill each shape with water. Then, taking care not to slop the water, place your tray in the freezer (or outside, if it’s below zero!).
6. Once your ice mobile has frozen, gently remove the ice from the shapes (you may need a little bit of warm water to ease them out, or leave them on the counter for 5 minutes to loosen).
7. Now you can head outdoors and hang your mobile from a tree or outside your window!
Learning together
Water freezes at 0˚C. Making observations about your Ice Mobile will let you know whether the temperature is above or below zero, even without a thermometer! How many days or hours did your your ice mobile last before melting? What does this tell you about outdoor temperature. Want to go further? Use your ice mobile as a tool for discussing the water cycle (did you know that the same molecule of water in your ice mobile could have slid down the back of a dinosaur?) and the amazing properties of water that allows for life as we know it to exist on planet earth.
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