Ice Cube Castles

Ice cube castles.  A science lesson, architectural lesson, a chance to use your imagination and a great way to stay cool in the summer.

While preparing Grace's summer busy bags, I scoured pinterest for fun crafts and activities we could do to beat summer boredom.  When I came across Fun-A-Day's instructions to make an ice castle, I immediately added it to our summer to do list.

The first thing we did was take a walk through our yard collecting flower petals and smaller wildflowers.

Then, we filled ice cube trays and decorate each cube with a flower, glitter, sequence and beads. {We also made blue ice cubes adding blue food coloring to the water}.

 Grace's decorated ice cubes is much like she lives her life, full of color, sparkles and flowers. 

The hardest part...the waiting for the water to freeze.  

Then, using a paint brush and some water, construction began.

The water helps bind the cubes together.  Although, this part is mildly deceiving.  I expected the water to act like mortar is to bricks.  That was not the case.  The water kind of keeps the ice cubes together in a wobbly sort of a way.   

 

Though we weren't able to build our castle as high or securely as we had hoped, we still had fun.

That mischievous kitty got her nose stuck to the ice...and, to be honest, Grace's fingers stuck to the ice a bit too.

 

When we were finished creating, imagining and making our ice cube castle, we enjoyed watching it melt.

 You can see the full tutorial at Fun-A-Day here.