Ice Exploration

I don't know how you make it Its really hard to make ice You make it in the freezer because it stays cold I can get the cranberries with my hands but the other stuff is too hard I'm making cranberry juice The cranberries are squishy The ice is not squishy My hands are getting cold

So we asked some more questions…

What do you notice about how the ice feels? hard slippy, cold What about the water, how does it feel? cold it feels good on my hands wet How does the air feel? hot burning

Then we noticed that the large round ice blocks were getting smaller. So we asked a few more questions After some discussion the children decided it was the hot sun melting them so they decided to put it in the sun to make them "get smaller faster" I wonder what is making them small? Maybe it needs sunshine Hmm what made you think of sunshine? Ice cream melts from the sun So you are wondering if ice melts. Oh we need the sun to melt it so we can get the ice smaller, lets put it in the sun.

Wondering and experimenting The Children were impatient to get to the materials frozen into the ice so next we added some water color paint and pipettes. How do we get the stuff out of it? You have to break the ice to get it out Maybe it melts and breaks

I think we have to wash it with water to get it out

Put some water on it and more and more until the shell comes out It's not working Lets try water to make it get off

How does ice melt?

They were fascinated by the colored water and it’s effect on the ice. Interestingly a couple of them were convinced it was the magical color that was melting the ice. I'm putting on the water...oooohhh look how it looks now. Suck it up suck it up (singing) Why isn't it melting? Because it is going to take a long time until all the water is gone Can ice float yes watch its staying on the water all by its own You have to melt it with the colors We need more paint to get the shells out Can I have some blue (blue water color) Yeah look the paint is melting it I'm going to mix the colors...look it is still blue but it's different

Ice Painting

Finally we froze some left over watercolor paints and added sticks for handles. The children were very interested in how the colored blocks melted and "turned into paint". The children also enjoyed painting their arms with the "cold water paint"

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With colder, wetter weather on the horizon please make sure your child has at least 1 change of weather appropriate clothes in their bin or backpack.