Ice Cream

Since Summer is nearly upon us, now is the perfect time to learn how to make ice cream at home!

You'll need:

1/2 cup milk
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/4 Teaspoon vanilla

1/2-3/4 cups salt
2 cups ice
1 small (sandwich) ziplock bag
1 large (gallon) ziploc bag


Combine the first set of ingredients (the milk, sugar, and vanilla) in the small ziploc bag. Seal it thoroughly. To ensure it doesn't leak, seal this bag inside the 2nd small bag. Now, take the large ziploc bag and fill it with ice and salt. Place your small bag inside the large bag. Move the large bag back and forth, keeping the small bag in contact with the ice at all times. Do this for 10 -15 minutes or until the mixture appears frozen, adding more ice if necessary. The ice cream won't harden, it will remain soft but will be thicker than it was originally. To harden it more, you can put this in the freezer for half an hour (in a covered container). Or, you can remove the ice cream from the large bag and enjoy as is!

To make it chocolate flavoured, simply add a Teaspoon of cocoa powder. Instead of using ziplock bags, you can use a large and small coffee can (be sure to clean it out first!), or a small bowl placed inside a large bowl. When using bowls, you must constantly stir the mixture with an electric mixer or whisk.

Observations

Last week was my last day (at least for a while) to work with the after-school program I've been with. I must say it was pretty fun. I got a different group of kids each time. The were usually pretty excited when it got to be their turns because they had seen the Glurch the other kids had made.

They definitely liked the messy activities best. After my first visit, I realized that in addition to the tablecloth, they would need something to keep them from being covered in food coloring and other stuff. I ended bringing in some workshirts I didn't mind them getting dirty. And thank goodness I did. As part of Oobleck, I had them touch the cornstarch by itself (because it feels unusually smooth). For some reason, they children really enjoyed throwing the cornstarch at each other. I would also not recommend doing these activities over a nice floor because every time we ended up having to wipe it off extensively.

Two of the kids I had in my first group liked the experience so much that they kept on trying to sneak into my other sessions. As long as I had enough materials I would usually let them. And I'm happy to say at least some things I taught them must have stuck, because they could explain a few of the activities to the new kids!

I admit, as I went through the sessions my explanations got progressively worse. This was partly due to the fact that the groups kept getting younger. The last group was full of second graders. We could discuss what state of matter the Oobleck was, but that was about it.