Have you ever tried making ice cream in a coffee can? It was one of my go-to summer therapy activities for groups of all ages and is now something I am excited to enjoy with my own children. These photos are from last summer when the twins were two, and they are already begging me to do it again now that the weather is warming up. Can’t say I blame them- it was pretty rad!
How To Make Ice Cream in a Coffee Can
What You’ll Need
- 1 pint half and half
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons of any flavor instant pudding mix and/or any additional flavorings (chopped fruit, chocolate chips, cookie bits, etc.)
- 1 lb metal coffee can
- 3 lb metal coffee can
- Duct tape
- Rock salt
- Ice (Be sure you get small ice pieces or crushed ice- the regular ice cubes from our freezer were too large and I had to crush them with a hammer!)
Have your children help you stir together the first three ingredients in a bowl, plus any additional flavorings you desire. Once this step is complete, place your mixture in your smaller coffee can, duct taping the lid shut securely. Next, place the small can inside the larger can and pack layers of ice and rock salt all around it (see photo below for reference). Now, take your can outside and get busy making some ice cream!
To get your ice cream nice and frozen (or at least soft serve), the object is to keep the can in motion by rolling or shaking it for a good 8-10 minutes. On this day, we started out rolling it on the lawn, but the can was a bit heavy for the twins and they quickly tired of pushing it around the yard. They did give it the old college try, though…anything for ice cream!
I was looking around the yard for a sloped area that might make rolling a bit easier when it hit me…our slide! I had no idea if it would work or not, but I was determined to try…I wanted the twins to stay engaged so they could have the satisfaction of (hopefully) discovering that the liquid had frozen into ice cream inside the can because of their efforts. So, I had the twins climb up into their play fort and roll the coffee can down the slide over, and over, and over. They thought this was GREAT fun, and luckily my mother was here to help retrieve the can for the kids so I could snap a few photos of the operation.
After about 10 minutes, the ice was pretty much melted and we decided to open the can and see if our zany method was successful. I had my doubts, but lo and behold…
…it really worked! We rushed inside for a bowl while the it was still nice and frosty, and the verdict was…
YUM!
Developmental Skills
As I mentioned above, this is a method of making ice cream that I used quite a bit with my speech therapy kiddos- we used it for social skills groups, language targets (retelling the steps of the process, following oral and written directions, problem solving), and even articulation (say targeted sounds in words or sentences when it’s your turn to roll the can). Obviously it’s great for fine and gross motor skills as well, and it definitely gave my problem-solving skills a workout! As with any cooking activity, following a recipe is great for emergent literacy and math skills, even for non-readers. Needless to say, it’s a very versatile activity that my students looked forward to every year. But I have to admit, we never tried using a slide 😉
We’ve always done the baggie method, but I like this idea better! The kids will have a great time rolling down the slide and kicking it around without it getting all drippy on us!
I loved doing this in school and can’t wait to do it with my grandkids!
I wonder if two kiddos rolling the can to each other across a smooth surface would also work? Some more upper limb gross motor, hand eye coordidoddle, a wee dash of vestibular… :).
I might need to try this! What a cool idea