This trick is a winner for the surprise element. You can only do it once in front of your audience, so make a big show of it.
The best way to help your child learn to perform a trick successfully is to learn the trick yourself first, then teach it to your child. Let your child perform the trick for you as many times as it takes for him or her to feel comfortable with it. Often, it’s not the trick that frazzles your child, but knowing what to say, so practice will help this.
What you need: a drinking glass that you can’t see through, a piece of a sponge, cup with some water in it, and some ice cubes.
How it Looks: You pour some water into a cup, breathe on it and the water has turned to ice cubes.
The Show: Have your audience seated in front of you. Set out your drinking glass and the cup with water in it. Explain to your audience that you have the remarkable ability to make your breath so cold that you can turn water into ice just by breathing on it. Pour a little bit of the water from the cup into the drinking glass. Take in a deep breath and make a dramatic show of blowing into the cup. Turn the cup upside down, and only ice cubes tumble out.
The Secret: The secret is all in the setup before you do the trick. Stick a sponge in the bottom of the drinking glass. It has to fit snugly so it won’t fall out when you turn the glass upside down. You might have to cut a kitchen sponge to fit.
Now place a few ice cubes on top of the sponge.
When you pour the water into the glass, the sponge will absorb the water. When you turn the glass over, only the ice cubes will come out.