Build an Indoor Igloo!

What You Need:

• Water
• Empty half gallon milk containers (or several ice cube trays for a mini-version)
• Cold weather!
• Food coloring (optional)

What You Do:

1. Decide what sort of winter structure you would like to build. Should you include an ice wall? An ice igloo? A circular fortress? It's up to you!
2. Collect enough empty half-gallon milk containers to build a good-sized structure. Anywhere from 20-50 containers (or more!) will work. Cut off their tops, so you're left with just the square bottoms. Choose a very cold day and help learners fill each container with water. You can add some blue food coloring if you'd like your ice blocks to be tinted, for an extra chilly effect.
3. Leave your milk container "molds" outside to freeze. (This may take a few days, or just one particularly freezing night.) Once they're frozen, learners can have a blast ripping off the cardboard molds, so that they're left with just blocks of ice.
4. Then start stacking! Rub a little bit of water between each block to make them stick together. Then enjoy to fruits of your labor! You can have a snowball fight and use your igloo as a fortress or pretend you live with the Inuit!

If learners don't have the patience to collect all those milk containers, or if you live in too warm a climate to make it viable to do this activity outside, consider a mini-version. You can do the same thing using ice cubes!