Ice, part 2

I was disappointed that I didn't think to have Drew check out his ice art later that afternoon, after the salt had worked its way into the ice, and when it looked so beautiful held up to the light, so I was happy to see that the ice survived until the next afternoon. We were about to head out to run errands, but took a moment to marvel at the ice held up to light...

... then to feel how cold and smooth it was...

Drew had fun observing his ice and even asked if he could smell it. I told him he was using his "powers of observation" ( a term from Sesame Street's "Super Grover 2.0"). Then, seeing as we were being "sciencey", I thought Drew might have fun putting the ice in the microwave to see what would happen. I asked him what he thought might happen to the ice. "The paint will come off!" he told me.

Well, he was right! I explained to him that the ice was melting and turning into water and asked him what he thought would happen if it we put it back in for a long time. "I don't know!" he said. I told him we were making a prediction, a guess, based on what we had seen so far. I asked if he thought it would get smaller or bigger. "Smaller!" he said.

Even as such, when I pulled it out the last time, with only a tiny fragment of ice left, he asked, "where did the ice go?" I told him all the water that he saw was from our ice, that ice is water that is frozen and solid, and when it melts it becomes a liquid again.

It's so fun to see things from a new perspective- I sometimes forget that something like melting ice can seem so magical to a child (it disappeared!). Even as we talked about it, our last little fragment melted away and Drew gasped to see it was gone!