Preschoolers Inspired by Ice at PIC
Winter got you down? Let this warm you up. PIC After School Teacher and art specialist, Rachel Parker recently guided a group of preschoolers through an inspired art and science project. Here, is what Rachel wrote about the fun:
I often look at Pinterest and see if there are any particularly interesting projects that I can adapt for our children. This idea seemed perfect for the cold weather.
Through this project, with a group of preschoolers, we turned winter's cold and ice into an asset, instead of an inconvenience, while learning art and science concepts.
I filled up balloons on a Friday and put them into the freezer for the weekend. The next week the children and I peeled off the balloons. I wanted the children to see and feel the ice as it came out of the freezer before we did anything to it.
This ice project followed a week during which the children and I had worked with various colors using both water colors and food coloring. The children had gained experience mixing colors and knew what happens when colors are combined, how to make attractive combinations, and how to avoid turning mixtures into muddy messes.
I wanted to build on what the children had learned using an entirely different medium.
The children and I discussed the ice as it came out of the freezer and compared it to a balloon filled with unfrozen water. We put the ice onto trays and tried to predict what would happen when we added food coloring and what would happen when we mixed in salt.
Then the children made color combinations with and without salt and added the combinations to the trays of ice. They were fascinated, and some children were enthralled by adding salt and seeing how much faster the ice melted.
Salt also changed the way the color interacted with the ice. Without salt, the color stayed on the surface of the ice; with salt, the food color actually entered the ice through holes made by the salt.
The children and I really enjoyed it and as you can see, what they created was magnificent!