Float your icy boats

Kids never seem to tire of playing with water – especially on a hot summer's day. Why not make these cool (literally!) frozen icy boats and let them float in a tub or pool or bucket. The kids will enjoy playing with the boats and watching the colours melt in the "pond".

What you need:

• Blu-Tack
• straws
• empty yoghurt containers
• water
• food colouring (blue, red, yellow)
• large tub or paddle pool
• paper
• tape

Number of players:

Activity:

This is best prepared the day before. We reckon it'll keep the kids happy – at least until the boats melt.

Put a bit of Blu-Tack at one end of a straw, then tack the straw to the inside bottom of the empty yoghurt container.

Half-fill the container up with water, then drop some food colouring into it and mix. Make about two to four of these with different coloured water.

Place the containers – straw, water and all – in the freezer overnight.

In the morning, cut out some paper triangles. When the kids are ready to play, tape the paper triangles to the straw – this will be the sail of the boat.

Outside, fill a large tub or wading pool with water and fill it as high as your children can reach. Alternatively, fill the bath tub.

Pop the frozen boats out of the containers and place them in the "pond". Your boats will float about and slowly melt.

When the boats have melted, have a chat about what colour the pond has turned. For example, if you have one blue and one red boat, your water should be purple. Instant colour lesson!

Notes:

• Experiment with other colours.
• If the pond is large enough, kids might like to hop in and play in the water.
• Make sure there is adequate supervision around water.