Before & Beyond KidStreet – Activity Guide

Making Homemade Ice Cream

Like the ice cream served at Café Oscar, here’s an opportunity to make homemade ice cream together.

What You’ll Need:

(makes one small scoop of ice cream)

• 6 tablespoons rock salt
• Ice cubes – approximately 12 ice cubes
• 1 gallon-size plastic food storage bag
• 1/2 cup milk or half & half
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 pint-size plastic food storage bag (e.g., Ziploc)

Set-Up:

Place all ingredients on a table with the ice cream ingredients near by and the ‘freezing’ ingredients closer in order to work on that step first.

What to Do:

1. Place the rock salt & ice cubes in the gallon-size plastic food storage bag. Close bag.
2. Place the milk/half & half, sugar, and vanilla into the pint-size food storage bag and seal carefully.
3. Place the smaller bag inside the larger bag and carefully seal the gallon size bag.
4. Take turns shaking the bags until ice cream is form. This will take about 5 minutes.
5. Carefully open the larger bag. Take out the smaller bag and dry it off.
6. Enjoy your ice cream together!!

Ideas for More:

• Use a fruit juice instead of the milk to create a sorbet.
• Add flavors, such as a small amount of chocolate or strawberry topping to the ice cream.
• Use the ice cream to make a banana split!

Length of Activity:

Set Up – 5 minutes if ingredients are readily available
Ice Cream Making – 5 minutes
Eating Time – it’s up to you!

Resources: Lebovitz, David. The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments. Berkeley: Ten Speed, 2007. Print.

Building a Shoebox Car

In the Under the Hood exhibit, there are a lot of things to do to help the car be in tip-top shape. Here’s a car that you can build and race at home.

What You’ll Need:

• Shoebox
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Crayons or Markers to decorate
• Masking tape
• Elmer’s glue
• Construction paper (yellow & two other favorite colors)
• 2 Gallon Milk Jug Lids
• 2 Dowels the 2” longer than width of shoebox
• 4 Wooden Craft wheels (2” or larger)
• Hot Melt Glue Gun (Optional)

Set-Up:

Create a work space on a table suitable for crafts. Gather materials needed from the list above so that they are nearby.

What to Do:

1. Draw an outline of a car on the sides of the shoebox. It can be as simple or as complex as you like.
2. Take the lid off of the shoebox. Cut out the outline of the car on both sides.
3. Draw a line about 2” up from the bottom of cardboard on the front and back of the shoebox. Cut along the line matching the line of the outline of the sides to the front and back of the car.
4. Cut the edges of the top off. Then use this cardboard for the hood and top of the car. Bend the cardboard as needed and use the masking tape to tape the top of the car to the sides.
5. Glue the two milk jug lids to the front of the car for headlights.
6. With a red marker, draw two red rectangles on the back of the car for taillights.
7. Make four holes (2 in the front and 2 in the back) in the sides of the car for the front and back axels to go through.
8. Put the wooden dowels through the holes to create the front and back axels. Then put the wooden wheels on axels. If needed, add a touch of glue to keep the wheels on the axels.
9. Cut out two small rectangles of construction paper for the license plates. Add letters and numbers or create ‘customized’ license plates, like ‘Grace’. Glue the license plates to the front and back of the car body.
10. Decorate the body of the car as desired with markers, crayons, and remaining construction paper.

Ideas for More:

• Find a 2X6 or wider board for a ramp to experiment with gravity.
• Find two boards with two cars and create your own races!
• Attach a balloon to a straw, blow up the balloon (& hold onto it to keep the balloon inflated), and then tape the straw to roof of the car. Let go to watch it become ‘jet propelled’.
• Develop other ways to propel your car – use your imagination.

Length of Activity:

Set Up – 15 minutes to gather materials
Car Making – 30 minutes to make the car
Racing Time – it’s up to you!

Resources:
How to Build a Mousetrap Car: Sobey, Edwin. Inventing Toys: Kids Having Fun Learning Science. Tucson, Ariz.: Zephyr, 2002. Print.