Activities to help supplement your studies and learning.

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Ice!

Areas of learning: Communication, Understanding the World, Creative, and Mathematics

Suitable age range: 3-4 years

Resources needed: Different sized tubs, ice cube trays, range of interesting objects, water based paint, long trays, water, paper, rulers, tape measures and hopefully a sharp frost!

This activity will be mainly child-led with adults working alongside the children to scaffold their learning and extend their problem-solving skills. It would take place outdoors and part 1 would be set up by an adult to spark the children’s curiosity.

Expected outcomes of the activity: The pupils will: a) become curious and use their senses to understand the concepts of melting and freezing; b) use new vocabulary such as freeze, melt, wet and sticky in context and feel confident to share their ideas with adults around them; and c) (for more able children) apply math’s knowledge to talk about sizes of ice and begin simple measurements to record the outcome of the experiment. This activity will create a sense of wonder and lead onto continued opportunities to use the weather as a basis for scientific enquiry.

Details of the activity:

Part 1: The child-initiated experience will come first. An adult will set up the learning in the outdoor area on a cold winter morning. Different sized ice blocks – frozen with interesting objects inside such as Lego men, cars and shiny objects – will be placed inside a builder’s tray. To enhance the presentation, magic snow could also be used (although real snow would be perfect).

This activity will be available throughout free play and an adult will work alongside the children to encourage discussion and exploration. During this time key vocabulary will be role-modelled and the adult will engage in sustained shared thinking to support children’s emerging ideas of what they see. This experience might be repeated for several days before moving onto Part 2.

Part 2: Melting – Using block of ice similar to above, challenge the children to develop a game of ‘Ice Hunt’. Encourage the children to hide ice in different places across the Nursery setting and return regularly to observe the changes. Talk together about ideas about what is happening. Are some ice blocks melting quicker? Why might this be the case? How could you speed up/slow down the melting process? What happens to the ice eventually? Build on the learning from Part 1.

Some more able children could take measurements of the ice blocks using rulers and tape measures and begin to record their findings. What do they notice about the size of the ice?

Further experiences to enhance experiment:

• Ice painting – Freeze a large tray of ice and provide water-based paints to paint the surface of the ice. You can ‘magic wipe’ the ice to remove the paint and explore again.
   
• Make ice decorations using different shaped molds and hang up in the outdoor area. Encourage children to
  observe them as they drip and melt.
   
• Explore what happens to ice when salt is added (close supervision).
   
• Make a small world scene using polar and arctic animals and real ice volcanos. Pour a small amount of food colouring on top of the volcano and observe as the ice and colouring mix during the melting process.
   
• Talk about keeping warm in winter and appropriate clothing. Sort and match socks, gloves and hats.
   
• Enjoy making real hot chocolate for snack and having this outside. Make pretend hot chocolate in the mud kitchen.
   
• Paint with ‘cold colours’.
   

Why is ice sticky?

Ice feels sticky because when you touch it the ice freezes the moisture in your skin.

Key Vocabulary: Snow, cold, ice, frozen, freezing, clear, slippery, wet, melt, melting, mix, measure, big, small, water, frost, warm