Mini Ice Sculptures

 

We're in the midst of a big deep freeze where I live. Perfect time to show the mini ice sculptures my students made right before the winter break. I team taught this with a colleague who's an ice molding sculptor extraordinaire. He makes these at his home and they become quite elaborate and complex.

We asked students to bring in containers in which to mold their sculptures. Metal bunt pans and any flexible plastic disposable or foil containers work great. 

We cut fir tree branches, greenery and berries to add. We also provided beans and lentils for colour and texture. Throw everything in a container, add water and set outside to freeze! This was a messy undertaking and took some planning so we weren't dripping water everywhere in the school. 

We also had kids fill up balloons with water, add a long piece of twine deep into the balloon and then we tied them shut. 

We tied these to the trees in front of our school. Some kids added food colouring. They create lovely shapes when the balloon is peeled off the frozen form. 

Before:

After!

We unmolded the ice sculptures by dipping containers in hot water. 

They stayed outside to be admired.

A cople of weeks later, they've been mostly covered up by our recent snowstorms.

This is -35 degrees Celcius y'all (-31 F for all the Americans)!!