Frozen themed coconut, blueberry and yogurt ice pops

As Parents/Carers we are always trying to find alternative healthy and nutritious treats for our children. Bee loves ice cream, but due to shop bought ice creams/pops having a high sugar content as well as other suspicious ingredients, we decided to make some delicious, healthy and cooling ice pops at home.  By making your own you know exactly what ingredients they contain and it is a great learning opportunity for your child.
We decided to make our ice pops fit for Queen Elsa and Princess Anna (from the Disney movie Frozen) I am sure they would love to feast on these chilled beauties
To give them a Frozen theme we used only blue and white ingredients. For nutritional purposes we added coconut water as it contains;

"minerals like calcium, iron, manganese, magnesium, and zinc...B-complex vitamins such as riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, pyridoxine, and folates. These vitamins are essential in the sense that the human body requires them from external sources to replenish...      electrolyte potassium. 100 ml of water has 250 mg of potassium and 105 mg of sodium. Together, these electrolytes help replenish electrolyte deficiency in the body due to diarrhea " found on www.nutrition-and-you.com  

                                                  

Who can play?

Children aged two and above

Safety:

If children are involved in the cutting up of fruits, ensure that you only provide a blunt knife, to prevent cuts.

Ensure that you and your child wash your hands prior to making the ice pops for hygiene reasons.

What do you need?

• Ice pop molds
• Freezer
• Yogurt (any kind that you have available in your fridge) 
• Coconut water
• Blueberries

What did the critique have to say regarding the activity?

"It's yum and cold" By Bee aged three.

What questions could be asked?

• Where can we put the ingredients to make them go cold and freeze?
• What do you think will happen to the fruit and liquid once it goes into the freezer? 
• Does it feel hot or cold?             

What did we do?
Firstly we washed our hands, fruit and the table.
Bee then placed the blueberries half way in the ice pop mold. As a guide, I used a dry wipe marker and made a line half way up the mold

Marks made half way down the ice pop mold as a guide

                                             
We then poured in the coconut water. Bee decided to put the coconut water to the top of one molds and said that it was "full" .She did not pour any into the end mold and said "I'm just going to put yogurt in that one". This showed that she was designing her own ice pops and experimenting with the combinations. At this point she also passed a comment about the blueberries floating, so we spent a minute or two talking about floating and sinking and why she thought this was happening.

        

We tasted the water and fruit as we went along and talked about the berries being sweet.
During the activity I questioned Bee as to how we were going to make them cold. At first she said the fridge and then the freezer because it is "even colder".
Next we placed them in the freezer for around 4 hours (or until they were frozen)
Finally we added yogurt to fill the rest of the ice pop mold. They were then placed in the freezer for another four hours or until frozen.

                                 

All that was left to do then was...enjoy...and we did! 

                                            

What did we learn?

• Communication and language-Speaking and listening. Following instructions. Explaining what she is doing.
• Physical development- Fine and large manipulative skills, coordination. Healthy food choices and talking about foods that are good and bad for you.
• Personal, social and emotional- Making relationships and developing social skills. Becoming aware of hygiene rules, by having to wash hands before the activity and encouraging self help skills.
• Mathematics- Counting out the fruit and measuring out the liquids. Talking about full, half full and empty. Measuring liquid space concepts.
• Understanding of the world- Learning about technology for example, the freezer is run by electricity and makes things go really cold. Developing an awareness of temperatures and change of state. Floating and sinking concepts as the blueberries floated in the coconut water. Developing the senses by tasting and touching the cold ice pops.
• Expressive arts and design- Creating her own style of ice pop. Making patterns in the ice pop by adding layers.

What could be done next?

• Experiment with different fruits 
• Make different colored fruit pops by adding strawberries and raspberries to one and blueberries and blackberries to another.
• If you want to make your own yogurt ice pops, but do not own ice pop molds, insert a spoon into the lid of a yogurt pot and place it in the freezer for a few hours. P
• Place tubes of yogurt in the freezer. The end result is a frozen yogurt bar.