Science with Ice

Day 7 with this months theme of "Sights and Sounds of Winter", we were to learn all about ice.  It was a fun day, with a lot of scientific discovery.  I think it's best to tell the story in pictures and I took A LOT of pictures.

While I got the days supplies together I had the boys play the folder game from yesterdays activities.  It's an animal tracks game where they spin the spinner, see which animals tracks they spun and then put the matching card on the board.  The first to get all 4 animal cards on the board wins. 

You can see Lachlan putting the "human" card down on the board.  They wanted to play a couple of rounds so I ended up waiting for them to finish and I decided to use the time to put together Peter's reindeer headband.

He colored his antlers purple and orange "because he loves us." I was confused until I realized those are my husband's and I's favorite colors.

 I made Adam put his back on as well.  He used his scissors to cut a few of his "points" off of his antlers. 

 And then he was done. . .

 What is this thing anyhow?

When I got up to get the bowl of water, ice and salt that we needed Goose the cat took my spot
at the table.  It was so funny.  He sat there like he was the teacher and the boys called him teacher Goose.

This science experiment was called "Ice Fishing".  First it had us ask the children to try to pick up the ice using the string.  Lachlan was the first to try. 

 Now it was Peter's turn.  They weren't having any luck, but they were having fun!

The next step in the instructions was to sprinkle a little bit of salt over the ice with the string lying on top, then wait a minute or so.  Waiting is hard, but we did it.

 Ta-da!  It was like a magic trick!
 Lachlan's next.

 Goose is waiting patiently.

 It did it again!

On the Science Card from Mother Goose Time it has an explain section.

"When salt is sprinkled over ice, the ice melts.  However, when it is used in such a small amount, like in our experiment, the water around the ice freezes again quickly.  This means that the string gets trapped as the water around it refreezes, making it stick to the ice."

We have been listening to the audio book of Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder and I reminded the boys about how the children made ice cream.  They mixed salt with the ice and then put the cream in the middle.  The salt made the ice colder and allowed it to freeze the ice cream.  It was fun to make a connection to something in our life.

Of course, last but not least, Adam wanted a turn.  

He could not handle the waiting part after the salt was sprinkled and kept pulling it out.  Big brother tried to help by holding it still but Adam wasn't a fan of that.

I explained to Lachlan that he may not do the experiment the correct way but he will do it in his own way, and that is okay. 

 I let Adam play and the boys each got out there notebooks.  After all, what good is a science experiment if we do not document our observations.  Peter got distracted a bit and decided to draw a picture of Goose teaching him about cars. 

Pretty good drawing of our friend Goose.

We then moved onto the art project.  We were drip painting to make icicle houses.  I mixed a little bit of water with white poster paint and then added some glue.  I had to play with it a while to get the correct consistency.  Something that would run but eventually stop on the page.  Adam went first.  He got a little bit of glitter on his hands.

I stood Lachlan's up with clips but he still needed to have a hand on it to keep it up right.  We don't have any of those table top easels but that would have been perfect.

Goose again with the prime viewing location.  After he was done dripping the white paint he added glitter and then we let them dry.  Later we add a triangle "roof" that the icicles look like they are hanging from.

Since Peter got to be the first to sprinkle the salt on the first experiment I let Lachlan go first on this one.  I put fresh ice in the bowl, sprinkled baking soda and then put a little more ice over that.  Then I made two glasses of colored vinegar.  They used the droppers provided by MGT to drop the vinegar on the baking soda.

 Peter thought it was awesome and tried to climb over the table. 

I encouraged him to move around and take my chair.  Of course Adam is learning a lot by observation as well. 

 It made some pretty cool bubbles. 

 Adam waited his turn by cutting, which is his favorite thing to do.

I had Lachlan document his observations for this experiment as well.  You can see the two color glasses, the droppers and the ice and bubbles in the bowl.  I had him come up with at least one word to describe the picture and we sounded out and wrote "bubble".

I was not expecting so much science in one day, it was a nice surprise.  Thank you Mother Goose Time for not only covering science this week for my preschooler but for my toddler and 1st grader too!