Growing Ice

I thought this growing ice science activity from Teach Preschool looked really fun, so we gave it a try today...and it worked! I just did it as a whole group activity, but I may try it again and let the kids try to do their own pouring.

We started out with just a cup of ice. Each student made a prediction about what would happen if we poured water on it. Most agreed that the ice would melt and get watery.

I had prepared two water bottles in the freezer according to the directions on Teach Preschool. (Just as she suggests, you have to be very gentle with the bottles or they freeze too quickly.) When you pour the nearly frozen water onto the ice, the ice starts to grow!

The kids were amazed and eager to touch and feel it. It is basically slush and falls down almost instantly when you touch it.

We decided to try and make one as tall as we could without touching it.

Maybe we could have gone taller, but the water bottle froze over at that point, so we'll never really know...