Frozen Gelatin Fossil Excavation and Frozen Gelatin Sensory Play

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I've seen so many awesome posts on ice excavation lately, and I was wondering if I could come up with a twist on that when I thought of gelatin.  We had so much fun with our Gelatin Play and our Fizzing Gelatin that I thought it would be worth a shot at freezing gelatin to see what it would do.  We made the gelatin as normal, with one fabulous new step - oiling the cups we were using before pouring the gelatin in.  One of my awesome readers, Med, replicated our Gelatin Play here and solved my the-gelatin-sticks-to-the-cups problem by using cooking spray on the cups.  We used regular cooking oil and it's genius (thank you, Med!)!  So we oiled the cups, set our creatures inside, and poured the liquid unflavored gelatin mix (made following the directions on the box) and stored them in the fridge until they set (about 4 hours), then moved them to the freezer overnight.

It might have worked to move them immediately to the freezer, but I figured I'd hedge my bets by letting them set in the regular fashion first.   They come out looking really neat - just like a frozen fossil - don't you think?

And here's another shot of two "fossils" we excavated the following day.

I set S up with a foil covered cookie tray (with an edge to contain water - the foil was to make the clean up of the leftover gelatin easier), a spoon, a container of warm water, and three of our frozen creatures who needed her help!

S alternated between drizzling the warm water over the gelatin and dunking the gelatin in the water.  The outer edges of the gelatin began to defrost and left a crazy cool-to-the-touch layer of squishy thawed gelatin.  It seemed a bit tougher than regular gelatin - it actually reminded me a lot of the texture of water beads!

S would break chunks off with her hands and squish them around a bit.

You could really dig into it once it had defrosted a bit from the warm water.

Once enough of the gelatin had been defrosted and picked off - she could use her hands to pull ant out!

 A successful rescue!  Ant is free and ready for a warm bath (it was cold in his gelatinous confines!)

The frozen gelatin had a strange texture, as I mentioned above, and it also seemed to absorb water like a sponge.  You could squeeze the water out, then submerge it and do it all over again.  It was really weird, but fun enough that even I had to do it repeatedly!

Squeeeeeze!

Not to mention, the crystals of ice and gelatin were so pretty!

Since gelatin is edible (but rather gross plain, so don't eat it - ew), X got to join in on the fun.  I wouldn't bother freezing a creature to dig out in the gelatin for a baby - but plain frozen unflavored gelatin would definitely be a fun summer sensory experience for the little guys.

X had a lot of fun touching the rubbery outer layer (we gave him one that was slightly defrosted).

He really does make the best faces.  Here he's saying "ooh!" as he investigates a chunk of defrosted gelatin he's broken off.

The biggest "fossil" we made was using one of the dinosaur skeletons we'd used to make our Plaster Dinosaur Fossils - and he is a BIG guy.  He took two days to excavate, but S had a great time.  I loved that this activity lasted quite some time - several hours over two days.  When S tired of working at getting the big dinosaur out, I just popped him in the freezer for the next day.  For reference, she was interested/able to excavate two smaller fossils each day - and I was able to make the big dinosaur and four smaller fossils out of one small box (four packets) of unflavored gelatin.

If you've got a dinosaur fan at home, For even more dinosaur fun, be sure to check out our No Sew Dinosaur World Playmat and our Dinosaurs and Sticky Mud Small World!

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Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.

10+ Super Easy Sensory Plays

All of the plays in this series are:

Appropriate for all ages
Use two or fewer ingredients
Use ingredients commonly found in a home

My hope with this series was to remind everyone that play doesn't have to be complicated to be fun!  And for those of you who are new to sensory play - I wanted to give you some nice and easy ideas for starting up.

To read more details about each, please click on the links.   They will lead you to the complete post.  :)
As I add more Super Easy Sensory Plays, I will add them to this post!

Cornstarch and Water

Dirt and Worms

Ice and Warm Water

Oatmeal Textures

Soap Foam

Wet Cotton Balls

Baby Safe Cloud Dough

Water Play

Birdseed

Rice Play

Dried Pasta

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Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.

Chilly Ice Cream Goo

S and I love ice cream.  So naturally when we saw Play Create Explore's recipe for ice cream dough, we had to try it.  And we loved it!  The only sad part for me was that it isn't edible - so I got to wondering - could I come up with a recipe for edible (not tasty - I'd leave that to the real thing) pretend ice cream?  I thought for weeks and couldn't come up with anything great.  Then I saw Growing a Jeweled Rose post her Freezy Dough (that scoops and melts like real ice cream!) and inspiration struck!  I could freeze the ingredients I'd been considering to make them stick together like ice cream!!!  So last week, S and I decided to try an experiment - frozen, melty, pretend - but EDIBLE! ice cream!!!

And so Chilly Ice Cream Goo was created:

We made vanilla and chocolate and they smell DELICIOUS.

You may notice it's shaped a little differently.  Our Chilly Ice Cream Goo does not scoop.  But it does melt just like real ice cream - and it is COLD like real ice cream.  In fact, if you aren't actively handling it, it stays frozen for an hour or more (and one of the days we were playing with it last week it was above 80 degrees out).  Another really cool trait is that it is totally reusable.  You just add a little water, stir, and pop it back in the freezer for another day of play.  We've been playing with our batch for a week now and it's still just as good as new!  If you do plan on reusing it, I'd recommend something reusable for sprinkles - we used plastic pony beads.

S checking out how cold it is!  Brrrr!

Doesn't it look just like chocolate ice cream?

S had so much fun dripping melted Chilly Ice Cream Goo over the chunks that were still frozen.

So realistic!

As you touch it with your finger, it starts to melt.

Decorating an ice cream sundae for me.  :)

S loved having several different sized bowls in play.  She would transfer and melt, drizzle and drip - she played for about three full hours!

Here's an example of how the Chilly Ice Cream Goo behaves.  These were both taken out for play at the same time, but the bowl on the left has been heavily handled.  The more you handle it, the more it melts.  If you are not handling it as much, it will retain its shape and temperature for an hour or more!

And one of the best parts is how fun it is once it's melted!  So squishy and goopy!

And drippy!

Once melted it will grip the spoon and container it's in for several seconds when upside down - so you can hold it over your head and watch it momentarily defy gravity!  Amazing!

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To make the vanilla, I used a flat Gladware container (any container will do) and add:

1-2 Tbsp Vanilla Extract(depending on how strong you want the scent to be)

1.5 cups cornstarch

Just a little over a cup of water

For chocolate:

2-3 Tbsp cocoa powder(depending on how strong you want the scent to be)

1.5 cups cornstarch

Just a little over a cup of water

You want to add just enough water that you can easily and smoothly stir the mixture - it should be the consistency of cake batter.  Once you've mixed thoroughly, pop in the freezer for 4 or more hours.  Though all ingredients are safe for consumption - it does not taste good and is not intended for eating.  I did take a taste and it was gritty and bitter, so I'm guessing most toddler would be deterred by that alone.  But nevertheless - this is not intended to be food, so please do not encourage active eating of it!

I used a kitchen mallet to break it into chunks (it is REALLY frozen when it comes out).

It was a HUGE hit.  We've played with it every day - and S is just mesmerized by it.  I can't get over how much it smells, looks, and melts like real ice cream.  Too much fun!

We very much hope you will give it a try!  It can be messy as it melts, so I did use the tips I outline in Managing Messy Play to contain it.

PS - Just as I posted this, Growing a Jeweled Rose posted about all the fun they had with Freezy Goo - same substance but used in a totally different way - be sure to check out the crazy colorful fun they had with it.  Oh, and she has the same feelings I do about it - it is just too cool to not try!

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Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.

Be sure to also check out the two other (very different and very fun!) recipes for pretend ice cream that inspired mine:

The Original Ice Cream Dough:  

Play Create Explore's Ice Cream Dough is much less messy and more of a dough.  You can scoop it and play with it just like real ice cream, but without any melty mess!  This is another one of S's favorites and you can find the recipe for Ice Cream Dough here.

The First Cold and Melty Freezy Dough:

Growing a Jeweled Rose's Freezy Dough scoops and melts like real ice cream!  It is an entirely different sensory experience, so be sure to give it a try!  You can find the recipe for Freezy Dough here.