Sensory Activities for kids: Summer pretend play with ice cream

This post is inspired by the fabulous chilly goo post on Fun at home  with Kids. After seeing that I was pretty sure my littles would LOVE to play with chilly goo. One small twist was I took my older child into consideration and created a more of a pretend play set up than a sensory activity. Ironically both the kids made this one into a sensory activity.

Our take on chilly goo

I combined cornstarch with unflavored, colored gelatin water. ( Add food color to gelatin water)

and got an almost runny goop.

I increased the corn starch a bit and made a little thicker mixture.

Now for the fun part. I chilled them in the refrigerator for 2 hours hoping that the gelatin would help the cornstarch settle faster. This is what we got – strawberry and chocolate pretend ice cream. Don’t they look realistic?

What we really loved about this pretend ice cream is that we were able to scoop it up .

You can see the difference in the textures. The strawberry one is thicker and will remain solid for bit longer than the chocolate one.

The kids loved dipping their hands in there and making what they called “chocolate milkshake”. Mom – chocolate ice cream became chocolate milkshake. I love that comparison. Kudos for play based learning.

After playing for a while, the goop somewhat turns into a creamy mixture.

The strawberry pretend ice cream was a bit flaky and just as fun.

I made another batch after playtime just to test the recipe and it turned out great as well.

Suggestions for Play

This time the kids were all about messy and sensory play. However you could do the following

Set out ice cream scoops, cups and spoons

Add Sprinkles

Make pretend chocolate syrup with flour and brown food color or cocoa powder.

Then you will have  created a fun invitation to play ice cream stand!

Kids can make sundaes with different flavors and decorate them or they can be like my kids and completely mess around with the pretend ice cream goo.

Recipe for Play Ice Cream

You will get the same texture as the chocolate one.

• 3/4 cup of cornstarch ( cornflour in the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand)
• 1 packet of unflavored gelatin
• 3/4 cup of water

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Dissolve 1 packet of unflavored gelatin in 3/4 cup of water

Add a few drops of food color in 3/4 cup of cornstarch. Quickly add the gelatin water to cornstarch and start mixing. You don’t want the gelatin to start setting, So add water to the gelatin only when you are ready with your cornstarch.

Mix them up and make sure there aren’t any lumps.

Chill in the fridge for 2 hours. You can check every now and then and see if you like the texture of the ice cream. Personal preference!

Since the pretend ice cream has gelatin it doesn’t “melt” as fast as regular oobleck.

Hope you and your kids have fun with this ice cream play idea.

I don’t want to leave you without sharing some of the most awesome cornstarch recipes and  play ice cream posts.

Visit this link for  many cornstarch play posts on Blog Me Mom

Don’t forget our sudsy goop

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