What Happened?
Today, the children explored a fun and colourful ice activity! We provided frozen coloured ice cubes, droppers, small buckets of water, and coffee filters. The children were curious as they picked up the different coloured ice cubes and placed them onto the coffee filters. They used the droppers to add water and watched closely as the ice began to melt. As the colours spread onto the coffee filters, the children were excited to see what was happening. Some children moved the ice cubes around, while others experimented with adding more water. They were able to explore the cold temperature of the ice, the different colours, and how the ice changed as it melted.
Connection to learning? Through this experience, the children were developing their curiosity, sensory exploration, fine motor skills, and early science skills. Using the droppers encouraged hand eye coordination and strengthened their small hand muscles. The children were also beginning to explore cause and effect as they noticed that adding water made the ice melt and caused the colours to spread and mix.
How does this Connect to Flight
The children freely explored the materials and discovered different ways to use the ice, water, droppers, and coffee filters. The children experimented with the materials and observed what happened when they added water or moved the ice around. Picking up the ice and squeezing the droppers supported the development of fine motor control and hand eye coordination. The children used their senses, actions, facial expressions, and sounds to communicate their discoveries during the experience.
Educator Reflection It was wonderful to watch the children become curious about the melting ice and changing colours. They were very engaged in touching, moving, squeezing, and observing. This showed us that the children are interested in water, colours, sensory experiences, and cause and effect exploration.
Where Can We Go from Here? To extend this learning, we can offer colour mixing water play, painting with frozen paint cubes, melting ice with warm and cold water, and using droppers with different coloured water. These experiences will allow the children to continue exploring colours and changes through hands on play.
