Pre-Writing Club: Ice Decorations

This is a really lovely way to explore how water changes. Your child can explore what it feels like once it has frozen, then watch as it melts.

What you need:

• Tupperware container

• Collection of nature objects e.g. leaves

• Water and a freezer!

Start by collecting some natural objects such as leaves. You could use sprigs from your Christmas tree and cranberries to make a really festive version. At school, we put beads, sequins and pom poms in the bottom of some plastic cups. I added about 2cm of water and froze them.

Break them up and add them to the Tupperware tubs.

Pour water into the container. If you boil it first and let it cool it should look clearer when it is frozen.

Make sure there is enough water to cover the objects. The place it in the freezer overnight.

Sophie couldn't wait until the next day so we took them out of the freezer that evening.

There was still some water inside one of them and the other one had created an icy layer on the top. This was a great opportunity to observe what had happened to the water and we talked about what would happen if we left them in the freezer for longer.

There are different ways they can explore the ice. When we picked the thinner ice decoration up it snapped. Sophie enjoyed stamping on it and listening to it crack.

We held the other ice decoration up to the fairy lights so the light shone through. You could freeze some string in the block so you could hang it up in a tree and watch how it changes overtime.

You could also try to get the objects out of the ice. They could try dripping warm water onto it using a pipette or medicine syringe or explore what happens when they add salt.

Skills:

Finding out and exploring - At school we focus on characteristics of effective learning. We provide opportunities for open-ended, hands on experiences which arise from curiosity. These opportunities help children to develop concepts, tests ideas and find out how things work.