Monday, July 11, 2011

Summer Art - Ice Blocks and Colored Salt


I decided to extend the fun we were having with salt and ice, using an idea from Anna Reyner's Smart Art 2, that I found via a Teach Preschool link.

We started out by freezing water in a number of different sized, and shaped containers to make interesting ice blocks.


Then, we sprinkled them with colored salt (a drop or two of food coloring, mixed with bowls of table salt)...


..and watched as the salt melted the surface of the ice, and allowed the food coloring to seep through the cracks inside the ice...



...before taking the blocks outside, to sit in the sun, while the salt melted tunnels into the ice.



Then, we added more colored salt, and watched as the colors ran into, and blended together in the tunnels.


Making for another sunny, heat beating, afternoon of fascinating, color mixing fun.


It's great to be a homeschooler.

6 comments:

April said...

So cool! I've seen so many ice ideas floating around, but we have yet to really mess with it this summer.

Christy Killoran said...

Wow, that is very cool! This is definitely going on my to do list!

Phyllis said...

What a COOL idea!

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

We did something similar last year but with smaller blocks. Bigger blocks look spectacular - this also goes to my bookmarks!

Ticia said...

How cool. I don't think they'd last as long here, but if the blocks were big enough......

Eddie said...

Looks like fun! I'll have to give this one a try with my kids before the good weather disappears.