Get ready for a cool activity! With this arts and crafts project, your child can build an ice sculpture that's so fun she may not even realize she's learning about science. Great for winter-time, or you can use your freezer to complete this activity year-round!
What You Need:
- Plastic containers of different shapes and sizes
- Food coloring
- Kosher salt and table salt in salt shakers
- Turkey baster and container of water
- Gloves/mittens
What You Do:
- Several days before undertaking this activity, freeze water in plastic containers or varied shapes and sizes. For extra interest, add food coloring to some of the water.
- Have gloves and mittens available to protect little hands. Unmold the ice on a table. It's about to get messy and wet, so you might want to do this outside.
- Have your child build sculptures with the ice. If there's more than one child challenge them to work together.
- Let your child experiment with the salt and water to see how it affects the ice. (Salt helps make ice melt, and can be used to make ice shapes stick together.)
After your child sees first-hand (literally) how such a simple thing as salt can have such a big effect on ice, she'll be looking at the world wondering how other objects interact. Without even knowing it, she just conducted a science experiment and art project all in one!
By Barbara Backer
Adapted from "The Weekly Curriculum: 52 Complete Preschool Themes" by Barbara Backer (Beltsville, MD: Gryphon House Inc., 2003). www.ghbooks.com
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