Brain Builders: Meltasaurus

by Heather Davis, MCM Early Learning Manager

Looking for another way to keep cool this summer? Give “Meltasaurus” a try! Meltasaurus is one of our most popular activities for younger children at the museum and now you can try them at home!

The setup: Grab some tiny plastic dinos, or LEGO’s, etc. Put the toys in some small containers (I had a bunch of mason jars hanging around), fill with water and freeze! 

(If using glass, keep an eye on the containers and pull them out of the freezer once the water has just frozen. Water expands when it freezes so glass jars can break! If you want to prep this activities one or more days, before use plastic containers that can expand with your ice.)

When you’re ready to play: Grab some squirt bottles or droppers, and fill ’em up with water.  I used a couple different kinds of bottles, including a small spray bottle and a pipette. 

With my assistants, Ava and Beau (age 3), first we worked on getting the dinos out of the jars by squirting the water and melting the ice. 

(For more experimentation, try filling the squirt bottles with different temperatures of water to see which frees the toys the fastest. For very little kids with short attention spans, or for bigger blocks of ice, use warm water.)

We used a plastic bin, but sitting in a small pool to do this activity would be a great way to keep cool on a hot summer’s day!  

As more of the ice was removed from the jars, Ava and Beau used their fine motor skills to squeeze the bottles and free the dinosaurs.  Every time they freed a dinosaur there was a great sense of accomplishment!  

Why is this a Brain Builder? Activities like “meltasaurus” encourage children to use their fine motor skills, which helps with later tasks like zipping, tying shoes and writing.  It supports social and emotional development by encouraging persistence, and feeling a sense of accomplishment.  It’s also a first step at scientific inquiry by using observational skills:  why does the water melt the ice, which dinosaurs are the same color, or what happens if we spray the water on ourselves or on the slide?