What do you get when you fill a plastic glove with water and freeze? Simple but super cool science for kids of all ages! Santa’s frozen hands will amaze your kids and keep them busy for maybe even a whole hour this holiday season. One of our best Christmas Science Experiments ever!
MELTING SANTA’S FROZEN HANDS
ICE MELT ACTIVITIES
Melting Santa’s frozen hands! What a simple but effective science activity for beginner scientists! I adore this simple ice melt activity, and we love ice melt activities in general. We use them all year round and have a terrific collection of ice activities for preschoolers already!
Here are a few of our favorites…
- Halloween melting ice experiment
- Icy Ocean Sensory Bin
- Evergreen Ice Melt For Winter
- Frozen Castles
- Valentine Frozen Hands
Frozen hands are super easy to make! I know my son really loves holiday themed activities, so I love to create cool and festive Christmas activities for us to try out together. Ice melting science has so many ways to dress it up for any holiday.
Introduce some simple science concepts to this ice melt activity by talking about how the water changes from a liquid to a solid when it is frozen, and then back again to a liquid. What differences do you notice? What happens to the frozen water when it is not as cold?
Click here to grab your FREE STEM Christmas Activities
MELTING SANTA’S FROZEN HANDS
YOU WILL NEED:
- disposable gloves
- glitter!
- sequins, mini ornaments, buttons, and beads {whatever you have!}
- water
- tray for holding hands while they freeze
- container for melting hands in and collecting water
- an eyedropper and or turkey baster
ICE MELT ACTIVITY SET UP
STEP 1: Add fun items, glitter and food coloring (optional) to a disposable glove.
STEP 2: Fill the glove all the way with water and cinch the end with a rubber band as if you were tying off a balloon.
STEP 3: Place in the freezer on a tray!
Make up your Santa hands and get them freezing right away! We were generous with the glitter and covered in it! Mine took a good day to freeze solid. My son was amazed by the hands and had to keep checking the freezer!
STEP 4. Remove the frozen hands by cutting the end off of the rubber glove and peeling the glove off of the hand. Set them in a container filled with Epsom salt for pretend snow {totally optional}! It makes it look so pretty and wintery!
STEP 5. All you need to add to your frozen hands ice melt activity is warm water, basters, or eye droppers!
It’s that simple, and we loved melting the frozen hands to uncover the treasures inside. You will too!
This will definitely keep the kids busy for the morning. When it’s all melted it turns into a lovely water sensory play bin too. The water will be icy cold, so add some warm water as well for a comfortable play temperature!
RELATED POST: Melting Christmas Trees
It’s like going on a treasure hunt for Christmas goodies! Excellent fine motor skills play with the eye droppers and basters. Little hands get a great workout while having so much fun finding everything! Plus, it’s science too.
RELATED POST: Crystal Gingerbread Ornament
The frozen hands shimmer as they melt! Yes, we truly have glitter everywhere, but it is worth it! Surprise your kids with Santa’s frozen hands. They will get a real kick out of it!
MORE FUN CHRISTMAS ACTIVITIES
Christmas Crafts 
Christmas STEM Activities DIY Christmas Ornaments Advent Calendar Ideas Christmas Tree Crafts Christmas Math Activities
SANTA’S FROZEN HANDS ICE MELT PROJECT
Click on the image below or on the link for more fun Christmas science experiments!
Fantastic, Sarah! I adore the holiday spin that you put on our frozen hands activity! You creative Mama, you! I’ll be pinning and sharing with my followers later this week!
Aw thanks so much Jackie! He asked for it again today, so I will make a bunch for a playdate!
This is such a fun activity! Our kids would love it. We did your melting castles activity a while ago and they had so much fun.