# Ice Block Avalanche
> Freeze colored water in half-gallon juice or milk cartons, then line the giant ice blocks up on a play slide and send them sliding down one by one or all together in an avalanche. A simple outdoor summer game that can also become a melting observation activity.
- URL: https://www.funlittles.com/summer-activities-with-ice-blocks/
- Ages: 3–8 yrs · Difficulty: easy · Mess: medium
- Time: prep 10 min, activity 30 min
- Works for: one-on-one, small group · one batch serves about 2 kids
- Skills: gross-motor, sensory-exploration, cause-and-effect, observation, pretend-play
- Cautions: food-dye

## Materials (one batch)
- Food color
- 2 gallon Water (household)
- 4 piece Empty half-gallon juice or milk cartons (household)
- 1 piece Scissors (household)
- 1 piece Play slide (household)
- 1 piece Tarp (optional)
- Salt (optional) (household)

## Substitutions
- Instead of food color: Plain water (no color) (Clear blocks slide just the same. The author used plain ice for her salt and water colors experiment.)

## Safety
- Adult frees the blocks from the cartons: warm water plus cutting the carton away is an adult job.
- Half-gallon ice blocks are heavy and slippery. Keep fingers, toes and bodies clear of the bottom of the slide while blocks are sliding, and gather blocks only after they stop.
- Very cold ice can hurt little hands with long contact. Let kids take breaks and warm up their hands.
- The wet slide and tarp get slippery. Walk, don't run, on the tarp.
- Colored ice is for playing, not licking or eating.
- Food color can stain hands, clothes and the tarp.
- If using salt, keep it away from eyes and cuts and wash hands afterward.
- Supervise at all times, and use sun protection and water breaks for outdoor summer play.

## Before you start
- Collect and rinse 4 empty half-gallon juice or milk cartons.
- Fill each carton with colored water and freeze until solid. This takes a while, so start well before play day.

## Steps
1. Mix food color into water and fill each empty half-gallon carton, one color per carton.
2. Freeze the cartons until the water is solid.
3. Adult: run warm water over each carton and cut the carton away to free the ice block.
4. Touch, feel and explore the brightly colored ice blocks.
5. Spread a tarp under the play slide so the blocks can travel further.
6. Line up all the ice blocks at the top of the slide.
7. Push the blocks down one at a time, then two at a time, then all four together to create an avalanche!
8. Gather the blocks from the tarp and start all over again.
9. Race the blocks to see which one slides the furthest.
10. Sprinkle a little salt on the slide or the blocks and look for signs of melting.

## Tips
- Freezing a half-gallon of water takes a while, so plan ahead. Warm running water helps you get the carton off.
- A tarp under the slide lets the ice blocks travel a little further. The sliding ice blocks were too much fun to watch.
- Each kid may approach this activity from a different angle. Ours started off rolling the blocks, gathering them from the tarp and restarting, then made up races to see which block went further.
- We tried taping heavy paper on the slide to catch some of the color, but that was a BUST.
- Turn it into a simple learning activity: have the kids observe the effect of sunlight on the blocks.

## The original post by TurkeyMom (2015)

Freeze colored water and create gorgeous ice blocks. It's not summer without some ice play. Here is a super easy summer activity with ice blocks. Ice is a staple for all fun kids activities during summertime. Use ice cubes to create [ice jewelry](https://www.funlittles.com/ice-activities-summer-ice-jewelry/), simply play with [colored ice blocks](https://www.funlittles.com/ice-activities-colored-ice-blocks/) and build structures, use ice in a [fun ice experiment](https://www.funlittles.com/science-experiments-for-kids-melting-hearts-art/), [create soapy ice sculptures](https://www.funlittles.com/frozen-soapy-sculptures-sensory-play/) and plenty more. Today we use ice on a large scale. **Materials**

- **[Food Color](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001O8KQP6/?tag=blmemo-20)**
- Water
- Empty juice/milk cartons

Freeze colored water in half gallon juice or milk carton. Remove the carton after the water freezes and { this takes a while. Use warm running water to cut out the carton} The children can touch, feel and explore the brightly colored ice blocks. We have used those ice blocks and done the salt and water colors science experiment { using plain ice} { [Read about it here](https://www.funlittles.com/science-experiments-for-kids-melting-hearts-art/)} This time we had a much bigger plan.  We gathered all our ice blocks and set them all up on top of our play slide.  The kids created multiple games with the ice blocks. Rolling them down one at a time, two at a time and all the four blocks together creating an avalanche.  I placed a tarp under the slide so the ice blocks could travel a little further. The sliding ice blocks were too much fun to watch.At this point, the kids will have different take on the same ice play activity. Mine started off rolling the blocks and gathering them from the tarp and restarting the same activity all over again.  After a while they started creating races to see which block went further. You can turn this into a simple learning activity as well by having the kids observe the effect of sunlight. Add a bit of salt on the slide or the ice blocks and have the kids look for signs of melting. We tried taping heavy paper on the slide to catch some of the color but that was a BUST. The kids also kept pushing the ice blocks on the tarp as colored ice trucks and pretend played for a while. Like I said each kid may approach this activity from a different angle. With that said, pushing down giant blocks of ice down the slide will make for a fun summer afternoon!! 

Thanks for reading

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