Fizzing Ice Cubes

Joy Manning

Fizzing ice cubes makes for a great preschool science activity, but in this post I want to talk about using this science activity for eye-hand coordination. If you want more information on how to adapt this to different developmental skills, check out the Fizzing Ice Cubes Tutorial.

I love activities that can be adapted to target a variety of skills. You can use this activity for cause and effect, color recognition, counting, language skills, fine motor skills, literacy and more!

This is a great activity to pair with academics because it’s highly motivating. Kids love spraying spray bottles, and watching things fizz.

So, let’s talk about eye-hand coordination. When I think about eye-hand coordination often times I immediately think about sports. Baseball, basketball, football, soccer, tennis, golf, they all take a great amount of eye-hand coordination.

What if a child isn’t interested in sports, and may never be interested? Does it really matter? That’s a definite yes.

Eye-hand coordination involves so many things. Think about the things you do on a daily basis that require good eye-hand coordination. That means everything you do that you use your hands and your sight for. Eating, brushing your teeth, tying your shoes, writing your to-do list, unlocking the door, putting on your seatbelt, driving, zipping your coat. So many things.

For some kids the coordination of using your vision and hands at the same time comes pretty naturally. For others it’s something that they may need some extra help with.

If it doesn’t come natural, it may not be fun and easy either. So, finding motivating activities to help your child is important. If you can’t keep your child engaged, it can be hard to target the skill needed.

Now that being said, this activity will obviously be very engaging for some kids and not at all for others. It’s the same for every other activity.

Try it out, adjust it, and just have fun with it. As your child works on squirting the spray bottle to hit the ice cubes and watch them fizz, they won’t even know they’re working. That’s the beauty of play, even though it’s child’s work, it doesn’t feel like work at all.

$10.00

Fizzing Ice Cubes Tutorial

Once you purchase the Fizzing Ice Cubes Tutorial and log in, you will have full access to all the content below this section.

Functional Developmental Levels (FDLs): 1-6

This activity is great for kids at an FDL of: 1-6

The Functional Developmental Levels (FDL) are based on The PLAY Project and DIR/Floortime

FDL 1: Self Regulation & Shared Attention
FDL 2: Engagement & Relating
FDL 3: Intentionality & Two-Way Communication
FDL 4: Social Problem-Solving & Mood Regulation
FDL 5: Creating Symbols & Using Words & Ideas
FDL 6: Emotional Thinking, Logic & Sense of Reality

Stages of Play: 1-6

This activity is great for kids primarily participating in stages: 1-6

The Stages of Play come from Parten’s Stages of Social Play.

Stage 1: Unoccupied Play
Stage 2: Solitary Play
Stage 3: Onlooker Play
Stage 4: Parallel Play
Stage 5: Associative Play
Stage 6: Cooperative Play

Sensory Input: Visual, Auditory, Tactile

This activity includes: visual, auditory, tactile

Our senses include more than the usual 5 senses. Some kids may seek certain types of sensory input and/or avoid other types.

Visual: Sight
Auditory: Sound
Olfactory: Smell
Oral: Taste (Gustatory) and using the mouth to speak, make sounds, eat, chew, drink, etc.
Tactile: Touch
Vestibular: How we process information about movement, gravity, and balance. We receive this information through the inner ear.
Proprioceptive: How we process information about body position and body parts. We receive this information through our muscles, ligaments, and joints.

Areas of Development: Communication, Cognitive, Motor

This activity is good for targeting the following developmental skills: communication, cognitive, motor

These are the main areas of child development addressed in the Early Intervention Tutorials

Communication: receptive language, expressive language, listening, two-way communication
Cognitive skills: cause & effect, literacy, math, science, problem solving, perception and concept
Executive functioning: emotional control, flexibility, perseverance, self-monitoring, organization, planning, response inhibition, attention, task initiation, time management, working memory
Motor skills: fine motor, gross motor, perceptual motor
Social-emotional skills: peer interaction, self concept & social role, pretend play, behavior, group activities
Adaptive skills: self-care, personal responsibility

Supplies

Ice cube tray
Vinegar
Baking Soda
Washable Paint or Food Coloring
Water
Spray Bottle

Instructions

Combine equal parts baking soda and water. Add washable paint or food coloring. Mix well (If you like multiple colors, then add the coloring after you put the baking soda mixture in the ice cube tray. Having only one colors saves a lot of time though)
Pour mixture into ice cube tray
Freeze
Pour vinegar into a spray bottle. You may dilute it with water 50% if you’d like
When the ice cubes are frozen, put them somewhere you don’t mind getting messy (i.e., outside, on a plastic covering, or in a bin)
Spray the ice cubes and see what happens

Extra Tips & Ideas

You can create an extra activity by having your child make the ice cubes
Combine the baking soda and water in a squeeze bottle
Have your child squirt the mixture into the ice cube trays
Put washable paint on a plate
Have your child use a toothpick to put paint in the ice cube tray and stir

Video Tutorial

Adapting to Different Stages of Play

Stages 1-4

At stages 1-2 kids may not be very interested in other people yet. At stages 3-4, kids are typically starting to be interested in other kids, but aren’t engaging in play with them yet.

Our main focus at stages 1-4 is going to be attention, engagement, and simple circles of communication (even if it’s just 1-3 circles at a time).

This activity is good for

GOALS:

Increase attention to one activity
Engage in play with a familiar adult
Initiate wants and needs through words, sounds, gestures, or facial expressions (open circles of communication)
Will respond when you open a circle of communication (close circles of communication)
Explore different textures
Participate in cause and effect activities
Increase time participating in parallel play (playing next to a peer with like materials)
Participate in purposeful interactions

TIPS FOR PLAYING WITH A CHILD AT THESE STAGES

Kids at these stages are not ready to share, so make sure everyone has their own supplies.
If you’re having a difficult time getting your child to engage with you, it’s ok to just sit near your child and be with each other
Instead of trying to get your child to imitate you, try imitating your child. Sometimes this helps pique your child’s interest in you
Our goals at these stages are attention, engagement, and circles of communication. Try playing without giving any directions or asking any questions. Instead, narrate what’s happening.
Try creating a sequence. For example, get animated and say “1,2,3 spray!” If this is interesting to your child, do it a few times, then start to pause before saying “spray” and wait for your child to open a circle.

Stages 4-5

These two stages are when kids are starting to be more interested in other kids. They may not be playing cooperatively yet, but they’re playing near each other and playing similar things.

GOALS:

Increase the amount of time participating in an activity next to a peer
Increase interaction with a peer
Increase circles of communication with adults and peers
Our goals here are more engagement, pretend play, and circles of communication. Fight the urge to give a lot of instructions, we’re still not working on following directions here.
Increase purposeful interactions
Sustain purposeful interactions for longer periods of time

TIPS FOR THESE STAGES

Kids that are just beginning to participate in parallel play may not be ready to share yet, and that’s ok. Have separate supplies for each participant.
Kids that are participating more in associative play may be more ready to share some supplies. You could try having one spray bottle to share and take turns with. If your child isn’t ready for that yet, that’s ok.
As kids start participating more in parallel play their imitation skills will typically increase as well. If you only have one child participating, then you can participate too.
Don’t give too many directions, allow your child to explore and come up with ideas of their own. Make comments about their ideas. You can say things like “wow, I like how you sprayed the blue one, I’m going to do that too!”
Instead of giving directions of what to do, you can narrate what you are doing and narrate what your child is doing as well. Remember, narrators don’t direct.
Just by having two water bottles, you can participate in parallel play with each other.

Stages 5-6

These stages are when kids are starting to interact more with each other, communicate with each other, and negotiate with each other. This is also when kids start to do more complex pretend play.

GOALS:

Imitate motor actions
Imitate pretend play
Follow one-step directions
Follow multi-step directions
Understand others’ emotions
Use magical powers
Give a turn to a peer when asked
Ask for a turn

TIPS FOR THESE STAGES

Allow your child to take the lead with the pretend play, but also throw in your ideas. Make it balanced.
For kids who are at stage 6, it’s ok to throw in a little playful conflict. It’s good for them to practice with you because we all know it’s going to happen with peers. For example if they come up with an idea, challenge them by saying you’d rather do something else. Then try to negotiate.
Before you start doing this activity, talk about what you want to do. You could pretend to save the world by getting rid of the fizzy monsters.
Now is the time when it’s ok to ask questions and give some directions. No one likes being bossed around or quizzed during playtime though, so be careful how often you’re doing it. Be purposeful. Don’t ask questions you know the answers to, ask questions to find out what your child is thinking.

Developmental Skills

In this section, I will give you specific examples of what you can do in this activity to address specific areas of development.

Communication skills

Receptive Language

Receptive Language (Understanding language)

For kids who are not using more than 1-2 word sentences independently, use salient language throughout this activity. This means you’re emphasizing certain words, or just using one word as you speak. For example you might say things like “let’s SPRAY!” “Spray, spray, spray” “1,2,3 SPRAY”
For kids who are able to follow directions, work on simple one step or multi-step directions. For example, “get the blue one”
Narrate what is happening and what everyone is doing
Talk about the sounds you hear, and what you see when the ice cube is shrinking

Expressive Language

Expressive Language (Using words, gestures, or writing to express oneself)

For kids who are working on initiating, set up the routine of starting and stopping spraying, maybe add a little 1,2,3 spray in there. After this routine is set up, then pause and wait expectantly for your child to initiate that she wants more. This can be through a word, a gesture, eye contact. Whatever it is, take it as communication (if you’re working on communication, don’t discount your child’s attempt at communicating just because it’s not how you want your child to communicate), give it a word, and start spraying again.
For kids who are able to use more words, expect more when they initiate. If they just say “go”, then do some playful obstruction and do the wrong action, instead of spraying the ice cube, spray the grass.
For kids who are able to have conversations, start pretending. Pretend to go on a monster hunt or to be detectives looking for clues.

Cognitive skills

Cause & Effect

This activity naturally teaches kids cause and effect. Kids learn that as they spray the ice cubes, they fizz and melt.

Pre-Literacy Skills

You can turn this into a pre-literacy activity if you have letter molds to make the ice cubes into. I left a link to some below. You could print ABC cards and draw cards and then you spray that letter.
If you don’t have ABC molds, you could put an ice cube on top of a picture (laminated if possible) and spray them when they’re named. You could do this for any vocabulary.
For kids working on rhyming, you could have pictures and when you say something that rhymes with that picture, they could spray the ice cube on it.
These types of activities are generally best for kids at stages 5-6

Pre-Math Skills

Count the ice cubes
Tell your child how many to spray
If you have ice cube molds for shapes or numbers you can name them and then they spray them
You can make the ice cubes different colors and work on color identification
As the ice cubes melt, you can recount the ice cubes to see how many are left

Perception & Concept

Perception and Concept (Examining differences and similarities)

You can compare the differences and similarities of the ice cubes
You can take pictures of the ice cubes at the beginning, middle, and end and then compare them
You can compare the ones you’ve sprayed vs the ones that you haven’t

Science

You can help your child make a hypothesis (educated guess) of what will happen when you spray the ice cubes
You can fill a few different water bottles with different solutions and guess which one will make it fizz
You can talk about the cause and effect that takes place
You can talk about the reactions of the vinegar and baking soda
You can talk about the different states of matter with the ice being a solid and liquid
While you’re prepping the activity, you can experiment with mixing colors as you make the ice cubes

Motor Skills

Fine Motor Skills

Fine Motor (skills that involve the small muscles of the body)
- Spraying with a spray bottle is great for fine motor skills
- If you turn the preparation into an activity, this is also great for fine motor skills
- Use a measuring spoon to transfer the baking soda and water into a bowl
- Mix with a spoon
- Use an eye dropper to put the liquid into the ice cube trays
- When the ice cubes are frozen, have your child help get them out of the trays (if they’re able to)

Perceptual Motor Skills

Perceptual Motor (coordinating senses and motor skills to interact with the environment)

–Bilateral Coordination (using both sides of the body together in one activity)

Use a squeeze bottle and have your child squeeze with both hands to put the solution in the ice cube trays
Help your child hold the bowl with one hand and stir with the other
If your child needs help spraying the spray bottle, have them try doing it with two hands

–Crossing Midline (moving one limb across midline to the other side of the body)

When prepping for this activity with the mixing and stirring, have the baking soda, water, and mixing bowl on different sides of the child’s body so that the child has to reach from side to side to stir in the ingredients.

–Directional Awareness (left/right, up/down, in/out, top/bottom, front/back)

You can place the ice cubes in different places and give directions of which one to spray. For example “spray the one under the chair” or “spray the one on top of the bucket”
Giving directions like this is best for stages 5-6

–Eye-hand Coordination