Please welcome my friend, Michelle H., as a guest blogger. I was lucky to be Michelle’s colleague at an elementary school for 8 years. She is the kind of teacher every child wants because she is sweet, silly, and fun-loving. She is also the kind of teacher every parent wants for their child because she has high standards and will help their child rise to the challenge. I learned so much from working with her, and I was beyond flattered when she told me that she was inspired by 52 Brand New to try a new experience every week with her family this year.
I’m Michelle, and I am a stay-at-home mom to a 6-year-old boy, a 4-year-old boy, and a 6 month old baby girl. My family was inspired by this blog to create our own “52 Brand New” for 2013. So far, we’ve done everything from visiting a model train museum to building a baking soda volcano! The following activity was our favorite to date.
This weekend marked the first big snowstorm of the season for our area. My boys were excited to have the chance to sled and play in the snow. However, my husband and I hoped that we could find something extra exciting for our children to do.
We googled “science experiments to do with snow,” and we discovered that you can actually make your own ice cream out of fresh snow! There were lots of different recipes, but we had all the ingredients for the one we found on Wikihow. We suggested the idea to our boys, thinking they’d be equally thrilled. At first they seemed a bit wary. My six-year-old, Andrew, warned of the dangers of eating yellow snow. My four-year-old, Matthew, was concerned that if we ate all the snow how could he make a snowman?
Once we assured them that we would only use fresh white snow and that there would be plenty left over for Frosty, the boys were on board and we got started. First, we scooped up about 4 cups of freshly fallen snow. In a separate bowl, we mixed together ½ cup of half and half, ¼ cup of sugar, and ¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract. We poured that over the snow and mixed it up until it had the consistency of soft serve ice cream. Andrew and I thought it looked more like mashed potatoes.
Finally, we put it in serving bowls and dug in! It was surprisingly good! My husband and I thought that it tasted like ice milk or non-fat ice cream. Andrew said he gave it four stars and even had a second helping with chocolate syrup on top. Matthew, who doesn’t usually like ice cream, claimed that it was his new favorite dessert.
What an easy and tasty science experiment! Who knows what we’ll make during the next snow storm? Ice pops, snow cones, the possibilities are endless!
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I loved that ice-cream recipe! I’ll copy you,at next snowfall!
Not only children will enjoy it,I’m sure.
I think you are right. I want to taste it, too!
Excellent FUN! My dad grew up in Vermont. When it snowed, we made sugar on snow . . .
Heat maple syrup to the “soft ball” stage. Give everyone a soup bowl of CLEAN snow to make indentations in. Ladle hot syrup onto the snow. As soon as it cools, peel it off the snow and eat.