It's Freezing, PreK Style!

What will happen to our cups of water if we put them outside tonight?

That was yesterday and it got down to 6 degrees last night... so let me show you what happened...

The kids filled  their cups with water,  added a squirt of liquid watercolors and then we put them outside of our classroom door.

We had a two hour delay this morning because of the cold weather and didn't get a chance to check these out until almost lunch time. It was below freezing all day so I didn't think that would matter a whole lot..  lol 

I sent the kids out a few at a time to get their cups and see what happened to their water.

The kids guessed correctly that they would find ice instead of water in their cups. They were mostly right but we found some other interesting things. The color (liquid watercolors) seemed to have separated from the water in the cups with the paint settling near the bottom of the cups. We could see the color through the ice but the tops were clear.

We also found that not all of the water was frozen! As cold as it was outside for nearly 24 hours we still had liquid in some of the cups! Wonder why? Not really sure myself unless there is something in the paint like alcohol that keeps it from freezing. 

They were all together against the building though there were some differences such as the amount of water and/or paint in each cup. The kids filled the cups by themselves so some were very full and others had little water in them.

The cups were in the shade the whole time and some were closer to the door than others. Did any of that make a difference? Really not sure about the why's but the kids had a great time exploring the ice and comparing how they were alike and different.

They talked about how cold the ice was and thought it was really cool when someone turned one over and the colored water went all over the table.

I loved the designs in the ice and how the paint and the water separated. We had a few kids out today so we still have a few untouched and we put the others back in their cups and back outside without the water from the tables..lol  We will look at them some more tomorrow and see what changes we have, if any.

It's suppose to stay below freezing again tonight and we are already on a two hour delay but we will make the most of it.

We did add more conditioner to yesterday's snow dough and made a little more. This time it got put in a ziplock bag to help it stay soft and pliable. The kids (and the teachers) have really enjoyed playing with it.