Nature Ice Treasures Winter Activity for Preschoolers

While we don’t get true winter weather here in Texas, we have had a couple of days where it touches freezing temperatures. So I thought I’d take advantage and try this nature treasures icy activity.

Nature Ice Treasures Winter Activity

We started this activity by taking one of our afternoon family walks around the neighborhood. While we were on our walk, we collected nature treasures. We got some leaves, and some acorns, and some sticks. It was a lovely afternoon walk. We love collecting nature treasures.

Supplies:

Nature treasures
Water
Yarn
Small containers to freeze the water and nature treasures in

Steps:

After we gathered our nature treasures, we put them in these little cups. I liked that we had some shorter disposable cups and that they are clear so you can see what’s going on inside better. Then we filled the cups with water.

To finalize the activity, I added some length of yarn. The yarn is so we can hang the nature treasures once they are frozen. I layered it in circles inside the cup so it would hold after freezing. You can see that in one of the photos in the image above.

Our final (ish) step was to carefully take the cups of water and treasures outside and leave them out overnight in anticipation of the freezing temperatures. But like I said, we live in Texas, so it doesn’t get cold enough for long enough.

The next morning we noticed how the top layer of the water had turned to ice, but the rest of the water in the cup was still liquid. My preschooler enjoyed feeling the cold, solid top of the water and moving it around with the liquid underneath. I also didn’t cover all the nature treasures fully, so some of the leaves stuck out above the ice. That was a fun thing to look at and chat about as well.

Then we used the freezer to help get us the rest of the way.

Finally, we took the fully frozen treasures back outside and pulled them out of their cups. We talked about how the water turned solid, and how cold it feels. Of course, the daytime temperature was warm, so we talked about the ice treasures melting in our hands. Then we hung them to glisten in the sun.