One of our awesome days of Mother Goose Time lessons focusing on Sights and Sounds of winter was all about winter ice. Other topics we’ve covered this month are animal tracks in the snow and the sound of drums.
Wonder About Winter Ice
Our conversation started out with “What do you need to make ice?” With a mixed age group, there’s usually someone who knows the answer!
December Days
Our December days have gone so fast! We really tired to keep up with circle time, covering our calendar, weather and daily topics. The Sights and Sounds of Winter theme is so rich and full for celebrating winter and the holidays. We’ve really enjoyed it!
Along with winter ice, we’ve learned about other outdoor sights and sounds of winter like, animal tracks, owls, bells, and winter birds.
Five Little Icicles
We began our circle time with the 5 Little Icicles Community Challenge. It’s basically a fingerplay counting activity, but I like that it involves a connection with others instead of an individual activity. As it says in the teacher guide, this activity builds relationship skills by engaging in an interactive game with a peer and helping each other accomplish a goal.
It was really cute to see the younger ones pointing to each finger and counting. Something everyone could do or attempt!
Ice Fishing Science Experiment
We love doing science experiments! This one is called “ice fishing”.
Everyone can observe but it’s more fun, if everyone can try it themselves.
During the experiment, I focused on saying, first, then, and next. So simple, yet a necessary lesson that’s easy to include while speaking to children once we are aware!
First, we poured the water over the ice. Can we pull out a piece of ice with the string? Can we “catch” a piece of ice? No, we can not.
Next we tried laying the string in the water and then sprinkling salt on it.
We waited patiently. What will happen? How can we catch some ice?
Then, we tried picking up the string and we caught some ice!
It’s really cool, but why does it work? How does the salt help us pick up the ice with the string?
First D gives it a try and he catches some ice.
Then A gets a turn. She picks up some ice with the string too.
Want to know how it works? The salt sprinkled on the ice begins to melt the ice. Then it quickly freezes again, sticking to the string. We tried it over and over again. Super cool experiment!
Books About Winter and Ice
Two of the books we enjoyed about winter and ice are Winter is Here! and Icebergs, Ice Caps, and Glaciers.
Dripping Icicles Art
We have done this activity before and it’s always a hit. I no longer have a large easel so we make do, and make do very well, I’d say. I just put a block under everyone’s tray so their work surface is slightly tilted. Then when they squeeze the thinned out paint through the pipettes, it drips nicely.
The littlest ones can be successful too, with some assistance.
Lots of dripping icicles!
Pipettes are wonderful for developing fine motor skills, eye hand coordination and hand and finger strength.
It’s fun to watch the paint drip even if it’s makes the windows run…
Here’s how we displayed our winter houses.
Dripping icicles
They look so festive for winter and the holidays.
Ice Sensory Bin
This may be the best $1.29 I’ve ever spent – on a bag of ice for the sensory bin! Seriously, the ice was slow to melt and we got a lot of use out of it.
Mother Goose Time included this science and nature activity in the STEAM Stations suggestions for this week. The activity focuses on sound so it connects perfectly with the Sights and Sounds theme. Asking questions while the children play encourages them to think creatively and work to create sounds with the ice.
We did some of that, but they explored the ice effectively on their own.
Most of my sensory bins are simple, just adding a variety of tools and containers to the main filler. In this case, using baskets with openings allows water from the melted ice cubes to drain out.
Since ice is cold, we used spoons and tweezers to pick up the ice.
Ice cube trays are always awesome in sensory bins but it’s cool that we can put ice cubes in actual ice cube trays!
What a fun filled day of discovering sounds of nature, investigating freezing and melting and using our senses to learn about winter ice. Also, try our Fizzy Ice Sensory & Science bin.
