‘Frozen’ Play Ideas & Activities

Whose kids love Frozen? Definitely mine! The kids have loved Elsa, Anna and friends for a few years now and are currently in a major Frozen-loving phase.

I like to try and build on their interests when I can, so I thought up a few activities that involve Elsa and Anna. Winter is the perfect season for some real and pretend ice play. Here are some of the Frozen-inspired play activities we’ve done and loved lately.

Frozen Ice Rescue

What says ‘Frozen’ more than an actual castle made of ice?

Elsa's real ice castle

I used buckets, mud kitchen pans and recycling containers (milk cartons, plastic bottles and a muffin package), filled them with water and left them outside to freeze. I also filled up the Tuff Tray with water and left it to freeze. Since some of the buckets were large and our temperatures didn’t drop very low, it took a few days for the containers of water to all freeze, so you may need to plan a few days in advance.

The Little People Frozen characters froze in cups of water in the freezer.

When everything was frozen, I set out the ice pieces and stacked a few of them to resemble a castle tower. I also put out a bowl of table salt and some squeeze bottles of warm water. When the kids came outside, they used the salt and warm water to free their friends from the ice.

It’s a great activity for hand strength and learning about how to melt ice.  I found it to be an inexpensive, easy and fun option for winter play!

  • Large Tuff Tray – Scholar’s Choice (save with code HOUSEOFPLAY15)
  • Squeeze bottles – Dollarama 
  • Little People Frozen characters (these are my kids’ favourites) 

Frozen Arendelle Castle Small World

We can only be outside for short periods of time in the winter, so I set up our wooden castle pieces indoors to resemble Arendelle (as best I could). The kids said it didn’t look like Arendelle (haha), but I think they had fun with it anyway. 

The castle is a mixture of the Drewart Large Fastness (the largest of the Drewart fastness castles), the Drewart Crane Tower, the Drewart Pirate Island and a number of Ostheimer castle pieces and walls. I added Wonderie Play Cloths as a back drop and floor covering along with some Sarah’s Silks. Then, I added the Frozen characters, some felt winter pieces and some gems and lucite cubes. The kids also decided to add their unicorns to the scene.

The castle was big enough for them to sit inside and they enjoyed dreaming up all kinds of stories involving their Frozen friends.

  • Wooden castle pieces: Drewart Large Fastness, Crane Tower and Pirate Island, Ostheimer Castle pieces – Nest
  • Wonder ‘Waves of Light in the Night’ Play Cloth, felt snow stitched balls, icebergs, snowflakes, Grimm’s giant acrylic gems – Sewing Seeds Play (save with HOUSEOFPLAY10)
  • Preloved Wonder ‘Frozen Arctic’ Play Cloth, wooden cart, Sewing Seeds Play felt snow stitched balls – Wonder + Kind Shop (save with code HOUSEOFPLAY10)
  • Aurora Blocks, Arctic Ice Cave, wooden snowflakes – The Maple Mouse Sensory (save with ‘houseofplay10)
  • Sarah’s Silks play silks
wooden castle frozen small world play

Frozen Fizzy Light Table

We recently added a Light Table and Clear Cover Tray to our play resources. It’s been wonderful for the kids during the winter months when we’re inside more than usual. The light has such a soothing feeling and adds a new element to our sensory play.

We tried out some fizzy play on the light table and invited our Frozen pals to the party.

frozen light table fizzy play

We used Magic Potion Powder and squeeze bottles of water (since the fizz reaction is activated by water). I also added some Miracle Snow for the kids to mix with their potions. It comes as a powder that is activated by water to resemble real snow. Since both potion powder and snow are activated by water – they were very compatible in this play. When things get wet and messy, I avoid anything wood or felt and stick with resin, acrylic and plastic for easy cleaning after.

The kids explored the textures, mixed up potions and then created a Frozen spa with warm water for Anna and cold water for Elsa. I always love seeing what creative ideas they come up with.

The fizzing reaction is also very interesting to watch on the light table since the bubble details are accentuated.

girl playing with frozen fizzy potion activity

Do your kids love Frozen? What are some of your favourite ways to include Elsa and Anna in your play?

Build a Bug Hotel Activity for Kids

We love the book Bug Hotel by Libby Walden and Clover Robin. My kids like the idea of bugs living together in a cozy hotel so much that we thought we’d try building our own.

diy bug hotel for kids

For the “hotel”, I used a cardboard box with 2 bamboo utsenil box inserts from Dollarama. Then I placed a number of materials in the tray that the kids could put in the hotel for different insect habitats. The Bug Hotel book provides the perfect guidance for this activity. Our habitat materials were mostly gathered from around the house and outside. We used mini stumps, pine needles, sticks, pinecones, scrunched paper filler, seed heads, moss, egg carton, bamboo pieces, toilet paper rolls. I also cut some slits in pieces of cardboard to use for butterfly habitats. Everything was easy to collect, with the exception of the bamboo pieces. I bought the bamboo pole from Dollarama and had to use some muscle to cut it into 2-3 inch pieces with a saw.

bug hotel with cardboard and bamboo utensil box

Other Materials Used in the Activity:

  • Bug Hotel by Libby Walden and Clover Robin – Amazon
  • Bugs in the Garden Dirt Scented Sensory Bin in a Bag – Readymade Play Canada (code PLAY10) (note: I used 2 bags of dirt scented filler here)
  • Felt ladybug, bees, butterfly & Safari Ltd. life cycle figures – Sewing Seeds Play (code HOUSEOFPLAY10)
  • Artificial worms – Amazon
  • Tuff Tray – Scholar’s Choice
  • Small assembled Bug Hotel – Dollarama

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

My kids really enjoyed this activity and used the book as a reference for creating various habitats for the different insects. There were a number of textures to explore as well as an exploration of containment as they tried to fill the open spaces with different materials. The small assembled Bug Hotel went outside immediately so that real bugs could move in as soon as possible.

bug hotel activity with bamboo, sticks, stumps and felt ladybug

Monarch Butterfly Learn & Play Activity

“I gotta go! I gotta go! I gotta go to Mexico!”

flisat table monarch butterfly sensory activity

The kids have been loving the book, Gotta Go! Gotta Go! by Sam Swope about the monarch butterfly life cycle and migration. 

I thought it might be fun to show the kids a map of how far the monarchs travel, so they could get a better sense of their amazing journey. I put the map over our Lite Brite trofast insert and used the lights to plot the migration path from central Canada to Mexico. Along with the map, I included the Safari Ltd. monarch life cycle figures, a Folkmanis Monarch Butterfly finger puppet and a bin of sensory filler for the caterpillars and butterflies to play in. I also decided to make an easy monarch themed jar for scooping rice into. I used some paper butterflies from Dollarama and secured them to the jar with Mod Podge.

monarch migration activity for kids

The kids loved this activity and have enjoyed acting out the life cycle and journey of the monarch butterfly. And of course, we have read the book many, many times. They now know very well that monarch butterflies migrate to Mexico!

Materials

  • Gotta Go, Gotta Go by Sam Swope – Amazon
  • Felt monarch butterfly, Safari Ltd. Life Cycle of a Monarch Butterfly, Folkmanis Monarch finger puppet – Sewing Seeds Play (code HOUSEOFPLAY10)
  • Yellow Door Education Natural Flower Tray – Scholar’s Choice
  • Monarch Meadow sensory filler – The Creative Mix Shop
  • Wood Light Brite Insert – Eye Spy Club
  • DIY butterfly jar (paper butterflies from Dollarama and Mod Podge)

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

boy playing with monarch butterfly activity

Open-Ended Small World Play

Last week, I attended a Scholar’s Choice free webinar hosted by Teresa Hadley (Instagram handle @joys.of.learning) called “Small Worlds, Big Stories: Inspiring Storytelling and Writing Play”. Teresa showed many inspiring small world play ideas, but the one I was drawn to the most was a open-ended type of small world play where the young learners could choose what kind of stories they want to tell.

If you know me, then you know I love an epic setup – and I think there is a place for it. Both my kids and I enjoy it and it probably provides some good modelling for them. However, sometimes I worry I’m doing too much of the creative thinking up front and complicating the activity more than I need to. 

open-ended small world play invitation

So, when I saw Teresa’s simple, pared down approach to a small world play invitation – I wanted to try it and see what my kids did with it. 

What is Small World Play?

Small World Play is using imagination and small props to create miniature or scaled-down scenes where stories can take place. A common example would be using blocks and figures to create stories about a family living in a house. Kids will often start by acting out stories they are familiar with (e.g., eating dinner, taking a bath and brushing their teeth) and then will expand into more imaginative and fantastical stories as they get older.

Our Experience with this Open-Ended Small World Play Activity

My kids do a lot of small world play; however, this type of small world play invitation was a bit new for them. Of course, they are used to using toys and other loose parts to create their own small worlds in an “open-ended” manner, but they haven’t been presented with that type of play in an activity tray. They were a bit hesitant at first.

The progression of play was

1. They coloured the wood peg people as representations of themselves (of course they did, my kids love to colour natural wood! lol)

2. They started experimenting with the materials and threaded some branches through bead holes. 

3. Then the play kind of stalled, and they left the activity. 

4.  The next morning I tried modelling what they might do with the materials – I drew a road and put out a basic foundation for a house… and then the play exploded. 

5. They drew more roads, they each built their own house across the street from each other and put a sidewalk in between.  They veered into some STEM building with their houses, which was great! They made gardens, deserts where lizards could live, and stacked cups on top of each other for a “hideout” at each house. 

So, in the end, this turned out super fun and I loved watching their creativity. We will be trying more of this type of invitation, now that the kids have a taste for it. I think it adds some wonderful variety into the type of activities we do and encourages the kids to use their imagination and creativity in new ways.

Materials

  • Tuff Tray – Scholar’s Choice
  • Within & Co. Mat and Wooden Loose Parts Large Surprise Bag – Sewing Seeds Play (save with code: HOUSEOFPLAY10)
  • Peg People, planting cups, tongue depressors, small stumps, river rocks – Dollarama
  • Loose parts from nature (sticks, branches, evergreens, pinecones)