Ice Cream in a Bag

I have heard of making ice cream in a ziplock bag, but had never tried it before. We talked about the letter I last week, so I thought it would be a great time to try making ice cream. It was so simple and fun. My boys loved it! I also tried it with my 3 year olds at school and I think it was one of the best activities we have done all year. Here is the recipe we used.

What you'll need:
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup milk or half & half
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons rock salt
1 pint-size plastic food storage bag (e.g., Ziploc)
1 gallon-size plastic food storage bag
Ice cubes

How to make it:
Fill the large bag half full of ice, and add the rock salt. Seal the bag.
Put milk, vanilla, and sugar into the small bag, and seal it.
Place the small bag inside the large one, and seal it again carefully. (I double bagged mine, because they can puncture pretty easily)
Shake until the mixture is ice cream, which takes about 5 minutes.
Wipe off the top of the small bag, then open it carefully. Enjoy!
I have also heard that you can use small and large coffee cans and roll them down the hallway for a few minutes.

We made vanilla ice cream and added sprinkles. It makes about 1 scoop of ice cream. I read that you can double the recipe, but not to do more than that in one bag. I wrote out the recipe and showed it to the boys. We talked about what a recipe is and why it is important to follow directions when cooking. Cooking with your kids is a great way to teach measurement and following directions.

When the boys finished eating their ice cream, I let them color a picture of an ice cream cone. Then they added sprinkles and a pom pom cherry on top.