Ice Cream Parlor

This was quite a busy week at the Ice Cream Shoppe! There was lots to do to keep us busy. Business was booming!

Our dramatic play area was turned into an Ice Cream Shoppe with balls and pom poms of all colors and all sizes. We even had teeny tiny pom poms in shakers to use for sprinkles. Red ones were for cherries on the top! We had ice cream scoops, plastic cones, cups, bowls and most importantly- our imaginations! Scooping and creating was loads of fun but we also enjoyed working at the cash register. We took turns being the cashier and the customers.

We loved chanting:

Five little cones at the ice cream shop, (hold up five fingers)
All decorated with sprinkles on top. (wiggle fingers as in "sprinkling")
Along came ____________ (child's name)
With a penny to pay, (Hold out hand as in "paying")
She(He) bought one cone and she(he) walked away!

What if it snowed ice cream like the lazy bear in our book Ice Cream Bear dreamed about? We talked about how yummy that would be, but maybe a bit sticky. This book always makes us hungry for ice cream!

Shaving cream, colored glue and sprinkles, made for quite the art project. We used spoons to swirl around the shaving cream, and then we stirred in glue in the color of our choice. Sprinkles and an ice cream cone, added just the right touch for awesome creations.

The grand finale of the week was heading outside to do a tasty science experiment.  We were each given two zip-lock baggies, one little one (pint size) and one big one (gallon size). To the little one we added 1 cup of half and half, 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. We zipped it shut and placed it in the large bag. To the large bag we added about 6 tablespoons of rock salt and some ice. Now came the fun part. We shook it up and shook it up until it thickened. We had some help with this part because it takes about 10 minutes of shaking for anything to happen. But, oh boy, it was worth the hard work and the time. When we took out the little bag, we dipped it in water to get rid of the salt and then poured the contents into a cup. We made ice cream! YUM!

We felt just like Teddy in the Ice Cream King...one of our favorite books.

Scoops of scented mint green, chocolate brown and strawberry pink play dough sent our senses and imaginations soaring. We scooped, squished and rolled but held back on the tasting part this time.

Who loves ice cream?

We do!