Ice- Looking at materials                                                                                   Back to contents page

The lesson - introduction

This lesson was delivered to 42 Year 2 children. Two classes were put together and there were two helpers in the room. The lesson was aimed to develop ideas on melting by specifically looking at ice and water. A popular activity in this area is the use of ice balloons and recently ice hands. These are made by filling the balloons and plastic gloves with water and then freezing them overnight. In the past I have always thought that these were excellent starters for work in this area but was doubtful about their effectiveness. In this lesson the ice balloons and hands were relegated to fun activities at the end of the main activity.

What was the lesson trying to achieve?

The lesson was aimed at developing children's ideas on the concept of melting. A focus on language was therefore important at the start of the lesson. Observation and recording was integrated into all aspects of the work and children were expected to predict and hypothesise in later activities when they examined the best material to stop an ice cube from melting. Fair testing was introduced but not developed and the children had a lot of fun.

Equipment

The major item of equipment was a 99p bag of ice cubes from Asda. This pack contains about 60-70 ice cubes of a variety of sizes which is important for discussion on fair tests. As part of the later activity some rubber bands and wrapping material are needed. The wrapping material used in this activity was bubble wrap, LEA paper towels and newspaper. For the finale some ice balloons and ice hands had been prepared in the freezer and some aquarium tanks were available so that the ice objects could be floated.

The lesson

The lesson started in good traditional KS1 style with all the children sitting on the mat. They were all asked to close their eyes and hold out their hands. Very quickly, using the helpers, each child was given an ice cube. The screams and shouts were a delight.The children were asked to find words which described the feelings of the ice cube in their hand and these were listed on a board. All of this time the ice cubes were melting slowly ( quickly) in the children's hands. Eventually their were 42 small damp patches on the carpet... a very small price to pay for the discussion and language generated. Did I say 42? ...there were 41... number 42 will be discussed later.

It was decided to do a little recording so children were asked to record what happened to the ice cube on a 'cartoon' recording sheet

The children were encouraged to annotate their drawings using the language developed in the initial discussion.

Back on the mat it was noticed that Stephen had a wet patch appearing in his trousers. He stood up and proudly produced a wet LEA towel and a very small sliver of the ice cube from inside it.

The problem now was that the ice cubes had to be taken home and there was nothing to carry them in. How could this be achieved? Lots of ideas were suggested but as boxes and other things were not available other ideas had to tried. This is where Stephen's experience proved useful and resulted in wrapping them up as a possible technique. Next question ...what was the best wrapping paper? Teacher produces three alternatives (a) paper towel (b) newspaper (c) bubble wrap. Children working in groups of three wrap some ice cubes in the materials and retire to play.

After play sit on mat and discuss what may be found. Children talk about thickness of wrapping material and make predictions then go to experiments and unwrap cubes. Pupils record information on another cartoon sheet .

They then go to mat and discuss results. For some it was bubblewrap while for two groups the LEA paper towel. Very quickly the idea of fairness was introduced by presenting two ice cubes, one large the other small. Which will melt first? The small one of course! "Were your ice cubes all the same size?" "Do you think it might have effected the result?"

Lesson finishes with fun activities using ice balloons and ice hands.   Ice balloons and ice hands in trays with added salt, food colouring and then floated in the aquaria tanks. Lesson finishes by reinforcing ice to water as melting and thinking about other things that could melt.