Melting Ice

I gave the children some big blocks of ice straight out of the freezer, I asked them what they felt like - "cold", "slippery", "slimy", "smooth", "funny", "disgusting"!


We spent a few minutes feeling and talking about the ice.


Then the children poured some salt into bowls, I added liquid watercolours and we mixed them up.  The children put a spoon of salt onto the ice blocks, immediately the ice popped and cracked, we listened very carefully to the noises it made.  We could see the ice melting, and crevices were formed.  The colour in the salt helped us to see where the ice was melting. 


The children added more and more salt, until it had all been added.  We felt the ice again, it wasn't smooth any more, it was "bumpy" and "rough".  The children also thought the the ice was "pretty'.


The children left the ice after a while to play elsewhere, however they kept coming back to the ice periodically to see how it had changed..


This was a fabulous (and very easy!) experiment for us to observe, I will definitely be on the look out for more for us to do!