It’s hot out there. Time to bring the cold inside. Grab some ice cubes and a tray. Your mission: figure out how to melt your ice cube as fast as possible without using the oven, microwave, or hot water from the tap. That’s it. Go. Gather Your Gear: • Ice cubes (at least one per person) • A tray, plate, or bowl to catch the melt • Timer (optional) • Paper and pencil to record observations (optional) Steps: 1. Everyone gets one ice cube. 2. Each person picks a strategy — hands, breath, sunlight through a window, a dark cloth, salt, sugar, pressing it between objects… 3. Set a timer for 5 minutes. 4. Compare results. What worked? What surprised you? 5. Try again with a new hypothesis. Variations by Age Age variations: 🐣 Ages 3–6: Just play with the ice — touch it, watch it, talk about what’s happening. “Is it getting smaller? Why?” No strategy needed. The wonder IS the activity. 🔍 Ages 7–12: Add a prediction round before you start. Write down what you think will work best and why. After, compare your prediction to what actually happened. 🧠 Teens: Challenge them to design the slowest melt insulate an ice cube using only materials in the house and see whose lasts longest. Bonus: look up why salt melts ice and whether that matches what they observed. Share in the comments: What method worked fastest in your house? Any surprises? Heatwave Hideout • Day 1 of 5

Except when we are traveling, then we ask our resident bread baker @Sandy Chong to share her bake. This week, over in the Crust & Crumb Academy, Chef Henry had everyone baking pretzels. Chef Henry is going to be sharing a cooking class during Unplug & Play (recorded) and a 30 minute Ask Me Anything about bread baking. Here’s his kid friendly pretzel recipe. Enjoy. https://pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/kids-can-bake-soft-pretzels Tagging a few members I thought might be interested in baking. @Jen Staniforth @Jenny Akinosho @Gus Gray @Anna Brown @Dannielle McAuliffe @Dee Gosrani @Michelle Fuentes @Jeannie Cole @Kristy Allison @Kiley Reynolds @Lisa Vanderveen @Liz Brants @Nat Carey @Amanda Owens @Sharon Otaguro @Paras Desai @Samuel Wendland @Sakthivel M @Sahibaz Tatla @Tim Tindle @Wendy Lee-Chu @Yu-Tzu Huang @Sharon Yeh @Catherine McDowell

Our European friends just experienced a massive heat wave and it looks like the US is next. Would you prefer stay cool activities or the build lab I was planning. For our friends down under, these can be adapted for cold, too. Attached our weather forecast in Fahrenheit. Including the “feels like” temperature. Pick your preference:

For those of you who were here last week, I wanted to provide a quick update on my daughter and to thank everyone who reached out. My daughter saw the podiatrist earlier this week, no tendon damage and stitches come out in two weeks. She’s healing nicely and in good spirits. I spent the day with her today, chasing a toddler so she could rest.

Let’s extend a warm welcome to our two newest members @Riddhima Goel and @Jenny Akinosho Pull up a chair and explore. You’ll find lots of ideas in the Play Prompts category and our 3 new labs are also open. Start exploring #Welcome to Connected Through Play and them pop over to #Try This Today and share your first mini activity. We’d love to get to know you so don’t be shy. Please say hi.