Painting with Frozen Water

We added food colouring to our ice cube trays and froze colourful ice cubes in order to encourage some scientific art making outside in the warm sun. Using a long piece of white paper and the ice cubes, I encouraged my children to spend time 'painting' with the ice. 

They noticed as the warm air melted the ice, the colour was left on the paper. By moving the ice in different ways, the markings on the paper were like those left by a paintbrush or other art making tool.

My children wanted to know why the ice was melting and this lead to a great discussion about the properties of matter and how water can be a solid, liquid, or gas.

 

I was amazed at just how beautiful this artwork was when the kids were finished. The colours bled into one another and created new colours. Coloured ice cubes are fun to paint with, but also great when incorporated into water table play or used for fun in the bath tub!

Ice

The children had the opportunity to predict what they thought was hidden in three blocks of ice today. Each block of ice was on display and the children wrote using pictures and words what they thought was in it.

The activity proved to be quite popular as children lined up to record their ideas in print. We were hoping the activity would encourage much discussion (and oral language) at the table as children discussed what they saw and what they thought the object might be based on these characteristics.

The children were also fascinated by the melting ice and during our afternoon circle we discussed why we thought ice melted. The children had many interesting responses!  During center time we placed a number of large blocks of ice in the water table and the children experimented with how the ice changed from frozen to liquid state. We will continue to explore this fascinating area of inquiry.  Stay tuned!