Natural ice play offers lots of learning opportunities for children to explore cause and effect and use their senses. By simply freezing ice cubes and pouring them into a tray to explore, can cover all areas of the EYFS. You can ask children some of the following questions/experiments and record your findings on the following;
- What is ice and where does it come from?
- How do you make ice?
- How can you find out what is in ice?
- What happened to ice when the temperature changes?
- How can we keep it solid and cold for longer?
- How can we make it melt quicker?
You can also add things to your ice, freeze toys or objects within and see what the quickest way to get them out is? Can they break the ice? Or is melting quicker? Do different things inside the ice make it melt quicker or slower?
Some useful resources for this activity could be;
- Empty bowl or tray
- Natural items from your garden or from winter walks
- Ice tray or large container
- Tap water (warm and cold)
- Plastic picks to excavate through the ice
- Plastic squeezy container with warm water
- Other liquids such as shampoo, juice, melted chocolate (what does the ice do to these other liquids?)