Investigating the Properties of Ice

 

My family and I live in Southern California- land of eternal sunshine. We haven't t had much of a winter around here lately. As a matter of fact, we only recently had a few days of rain (which Cannon was amazed with!). During this brief rain, it became pretty obvious that Cannon has been "meteroligically sheltered"--. My poor son had no idea what rain was! Not only that, he didn't really understand the word "cold" (although he most definitely knows the word "hot"). I figured we could read books about snow and ice and cold weather, or we could experience what "cold" really meant with a hands on investigation- I chose the latter :)

I poured a few blueberries and water in a small container and left them in the freezer overnight. When the blueberries and water were thoroughly frozen, I  placed the ice on a small dish. I also gave Cannon a water dropper and a small cup of warm water (lukewarm- NOT hot!). Just to add a little visual interest, I added a few drops of food coloring in the water. Since Cannon had never worked with a water dropper before, we spent a minute investigating that first. He got the hang of squeezing the rubber end to suction up water, and then squeezing it again to release the water. That could have been the whole activity by itself! But when he finally saw the blueberries in the ice, he was ready to excavate that yummy snack!

 

 

That's some serious concentration! He expertly employed the pincer grip to repeatedly squeeze the water out of the eye dropper...

 

 

 

...but impatience got the best of my munchkin and he ended up dumping the water onto the ice block :-)

 

Some of the fundamental scientific principles he was able to explore during this activity were:

• States of matter (specifically solid and liquid)
• Physical changes (solid melting into liquid form)
• Temperature investigation (sensory understanding of the world "cold")

While it would have been nice o follow this activity though to the entire ice block melting, Cannon's hunger was outweighing his curiosity:

 

 

 

So we ended a bit earlier than I had liked, but (as with most activities), I plan on repeating this one to help him internalize the concepts he explored today.  As for Hunter, I foresee an ice themed sensory activity coming his way soon!