Opportunity… Ice!

For most adults, the first occurrence of ice at the end of autumn or beginning of winter is not welcome. Ice presents problems for us- problems of walking upright, problems for our cars on the road, and problems with electrical power. For children though, ice is nothing short of magic. What is it? Where does it come from? How does it change?

These are just a few of the questions that could be heard bubbling around at Playhouse the other day when the children and teachers went outside in the cold to play. Gradually, children made discoveries on the playground- large pieces of ice on the sandbox tarp, ice trapped in the backs of the dump trucks, ice frozen to the bottom of the sand buckets, and even a truck partially encased in ice. They were entranced!

As a play-based school that builds learning around the interests of our children, the teachers went into action. One class brought ice inside to see what happens when it moves indoors. One class mixed 3 pieces of ice with different substances- salt, sugar, and water, to see how the ice reacted. One class made their own colored ice by mixing food coloring with water and then used the slowly melting colored ice cubes to paint.

While ice is an inconvenience for many of us, it is an opportunity for our children and teachers- an opportunity for discovery, for experimentation, for art, for discussion, and for experience. In this case, the opportunity of ice led directly to experiential science learning about temperature, chemical reactions, and states of matter. As a school that knows that experience is the root of genuine learning, we welcome the ice. Bring it on!