I is for Icecream

I is for ice cream was a very fun lesson and perfect for our upcoming SUMMERTIME. Some of the highlights were graphing our favorite ice cream flavors, making an ice cream cone craft out of our handprints (I let them choose their 3 favorite "flavors"), and making homemade ice cream. I never knew how easy it was to make homemade ice cream. Here's the recipe if you want to try it out:

Homemade ice cream
Large zip lock bag
Small zip lock bag
3 cups of ice
6 tbsp of salt
1/2 cup whole milk
2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 Tsp Vanilla
Add milk sugar and vanilla together in the small zip lock bag. Zip TIGHT and place larger zip lock bag with the ice and salt around it.
SHAKE.....SHAKE.......SHAKE for 5-10 minutes

I had the kids go out and jump on the tramp for the shaking and it worked perfectly, maybe a little too well. They had to let them thaw out a little! But the ice cream was actually quite good and incredibly easy. One piece of advice if you try this out... when you take the small ice cream baggie out of the bigger one, rinse it off before opening it so the salt doesn't mix in. Have fun!

We found some cute books about Ice Cream:
The Ice Cream King
Wemberly's Ice-Cream Star
 Should I Share My Ice Cream? (An Elephant and Piggie Book)
 I Scream! Ice Cream!: A Book of Wordles
 Ice Cream: Including Great Moments in Ice Cream History

Traced the Letter I
(click here for a printable)!

And we did a fun flannel board rhyme with my ice cream cones show above.  I had 5 colorful ice cream scoops to help show the story.
Five little ice cream cones standing in a row,
each has a scoop and an ice cream cone,
out came the sun and it shown all day,
one little ice cream cone melted away

Four little ice cream cones...
Three little ice cream cones...
Two little ice cream cones...
One little ice cream cone...

A fun math/reading activity: make ice cream cones with the colors and numbers on them.   A pattern is here.

We ate our homemade ice cream for dessert!  But alternatively, you could make homemade ice cream in a machine, like Rachel who gave us the recipe recently.

I cut triangles out of tan cardstock and then I crimped the cones with a Paper Crimper.  We traced the kid's hands, so I just had a plethora of colors so they could choose their favorite "color".  I bought Red Pompoms for the "cherry" on top.  Then I had a hole punch and various paper to hole punch in case they wanted chocolate chips, sprinkles or bubblegum.

A fun tidbit: July is National Ice Cream Month, the 3rd Sunday in July is Ice Cream Day and July 15 is Ice Cream Cone Day.  Who knew?  But one thing I know is that ice cream must be good for the soul because my dad had a scoop or two just about every night of my childhood and he is the healthiest grandpa I know! Other fun ice cream facts are here!


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