Ice Ice Baby!!

Last month we were exploring ice in the small trough. We had set some small shaped cubes with colour, glitter and sticks inside. The tamariki loved watching it melt and feeling the cold substance in their hands. We spoke about what ice is, how we make it and how it melts. we also spoke about what we use ice for and the children shared their knowledge on how it can keep our drinks and food cold. We also spoke about where we can find natural ice without having pre made it such as when snow melts and turns to ice when its cold and how we can have it on our car window in the winter. This month we made some more ice. This time we set a large bowl of ice with plastic insects inside. When I put this big dome of ice on the concrete the tamariki were very eager to get the insects out as quick as they could. We used our problem solving skills to come up with different ways to free the insects. We tried to pull the insects out but the ice was too hard. We tried to smash the ice with a spoon but again the ice was too hard. We spoke about how the sun will melt the ice and turn it back to water. Charlie.S then suggested we could put water on the ice to make it melt faster.The children laughed but were were very intrigued by this idea and questioned weather it would work. Many children rushed to give it a go. 

The children gathered, bowls, cups, water cans and anything they could find to transfer water over to the ice and found that it started to melt very quickly. This was a very exciting process filled with learning and team work. Ka Pai tamariki and Ka pai Charlie for sharing your clever idea with us.