Ingredients for Ziplock Ice-Cream

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup half and half

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 sandwich size Ziploc bags

1 one gallon size Ziploc bag

2 cups ice

1 tablespoon salt

What To Do

Step One:

Fill one sandwich sized Ziplock bag with ½ cup of milk, ¼ cup of half and half, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and ¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract. Seal the bag securely, making sure to remove as much excess air as you can. Place that bag inside the second sandwich sized Ziplock bag and seal that bag as well.

Step Two:****

Fill the gallon size Ziploc bag with 2 cups of ice and 1 tablespoon of salt. Place the smaller bag that has been filled with the milk mixture inside the larger bag and seal it firmly, getting as much air out of the bag as you can.

Step Three:****

Turn on some music and let your child shake themselves silly. Dance to the music and shake the bag of ice-cream mixture as hard as you can. Younger children may need some help if their arms get tired. Try switching off and taking turns. In 5-10 minutes you will have a delicious batch of homemade soft ice-cream.

If you prefer harder ice-cream, place the bag of soft ice-cream in the freezer for 1-2 hours and then enjoy.

Optional:

Add additional flavor to your Ziplock ice-cream by mixing in your favorite treats. Stir in some chocolate chips and chopped nuts for a crunchy treat. Add a few drops of peppermint oil and some chocolate chips for a mint flavored ice-cream.

Be creative and experiment with different flavors. You may discover a new favorite ice-cream flavor.

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Helpful Tips for Parents

• Curiosity is more valuable than knowledge. A curious child who doesn't know the answer will find it. A knowledgeable child who has lost curiosity will stop learning.

• Sleep is educational. Memory consolidation — the process of moving learning from short-term to long-term memory — happens during sleep. Well-rested children learn more effectively.

• Choose toys that grow with the child: open-ended materials (blocks, clay, art supplies) remain valuable for years; single-use toys with one correct answer produce brief engagement.

• Children's questions are assessment data. The questions a child asks reveal their current conceptual level and what they're ready to learn next.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the role of technology in preschool education?

High-quality educational apps and programs (PBS Kids, Khan Academy Kids, Starfall) used in limited, adult-co-viewed sessions can supplement preschool learning. However, interactive human experiences (conversation, shared book reading, hands-on experimentation, social play) remain far superior as primary learning modes. Screen-based learning is most effective when it is: co-viewed with an adult, limited to 30–60 minutes per day, followed by extension activities in the real world (after a nature app, go outside), and consistently educational rather than commercial.

How do I support a gifted preschooler who seems to need more than peers?

Gifted preschoolers benefit from depth rather than acceleration — instead of teaching next-year's content, provide deeper engagement with current concepts. A preschooler fascinated by numbers doesn't need grade-school arithmetic; they benefit from mathematical puzzles, spatial reasoning challenges, and mathematical exploration at their own depth. Social-emotional support is equally important: gifted preschoolers often have asynchronous development (advanced intellectually but emotionally typical for their age) and need appropriate peer interaction alongside intellectual challenge.

Related reading: See also our kindergarten readiness guide and our vocabulary building guide for more ideas on this topic.

🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 🧠 Memory & Recall — Remembering rules, retelling a story in sequence, and practicing skills to automaticity builds working memory and long-term recall — the cognitive foundation that learning in every subject depends on.
• 🔢 Early Numeracy — Hands-on counting, sorting, measuring, and pattern work develops the number sense and mathematical reasoning that formal arithmetic will later build on — and preschool numeracy is one of the strongest predictors of later math achievement.
• 💬 Vocabulary Expansion — Every new concept, activity, and domain-specific term a child encounters expands their vocabulary — and children's vocabulary at kindergarten entry is the single strongest predictor of reading comprehension at age 10.
• 🎯 Self-Directed Learning — Learning that begins with the child's own question or interest produces the deepest understanding — and children who experience self-directed learning develop the intrinsic motivation that sustains learning throughout life.

****I scream. You scream. We all scream for ice-cream. Who doesn't love ice-cream? Even though it is getting colder outside and everyone is starting to pull out their heavy coats we still enjoy a cold treat.

Ziplock Ice-Cream is a wonderful way to get preschoolers interested in cooking. Many preschoolers do not know what ingredients make up their favorite foods or how they are made. This simple food activity takes preschoolers through the process of making ice cream from beginning to end.

Whenever you are cooking with preschoolers it is best to have all the ingredients collected before you start. This prevents preschoolers from loosing interest in the project before you are finished. It is not necessary to measure out the ingredients before you start. Learning to measure ingredients is an important cooking skill for preschoolers to learn. They enjoy being a part of the process and they are developing essential math skills at the same time.