Experiments with ice for preschoolers. Properties of snow and ice

Experiments are understood as observations of natural phenomena organized under special conditions. They can be held in the kindergarten. Preschoolers are quite able to understand for themselves not only external manifestations of natural facts, but also the obvious interrelationships between them.

Do you need experiments for preschoolers?

What patterns can a child of a kindergarten age understand? Suffice it to say confidently about the different states of substances, their transition to other qualities, the peculiarities of the air, the property of sand, water and the like.

Experiences for preschoolers help to sharpen logical thinking, ability to compare and correct conclusions. Children learn to formulate their own judgments, and also to defend them.

At the heart of each of them should lie the ideas available to the child at the time of the beginning of the experiment. And the children in the process must take a very active part. When discussing the results with them, it is necessary to stimulate preschoolers to make independent judgments. Thanks to simple experiments, babies can be introduced to a large number of characteristics of water, clay, sand, etc.

For example, consider the experiments with ice for children of kindergarten, explaining the properties of water, as well as another well-known state of its - ice. It would seem that water is all familiar and familiar substance for a long time, but how much the unknown can learn the child in the course of a well-prepared experiment!

Ice in boiling water

So, let's get started. In the first of our experiments, fire, water, and ice are involved. More precisely, we will try to combine ice and boiling water. The simple equipment that we need for this, consists of a test tube, an alcohol burner, a weigher, and also cold water and several ice floes. In general, experiments with ice in the older group (or preparatory - toddlers to understand them while difficult) do not require a large number of complex instruments and instruments.

What does the child know at the time of the experiment? Preschoolers usually already know that in hot (not to mention boiling) water ice has the ability to quickly melt. Let's try to find out (this will be the purpose of our experience) - but is it possible: water boils, and the ice remains solid.

How is the experiment done: take a test tube and fill it with water, then throw a piece of ice. And since it is lighter than water, and has a property to float upwards, we press it down with a copper sinker, but at the same time the ice cubes must be surrounded from all sides by water.

And fire, and water, and ice - be careful!

Then the upper part of the tube begins to heat on the flame of an alcohol burner - just the upper part of it. After a very short time the water boils - steam is emitted from the test tube. But why does not the melting ice at the bottom melt away, what a miracle of nature?

The trick is that the boiling water is only in the upper part of the tube, and at the bottom it remains cold, that is, our ice is not "in boiling water," but "under hot water." As is known, under the influence of heat, water has the ability to expand and become lighter, so boiling water does not think to sink to the bottom and mix with cold water. There is no interaction between the upper hot and the lower cold layers, the lower part of the tube can heat up only by thermal conductivity, but, as is well known, this index is not very high in water.

By the way, the simplest experiments with ice and snow, understandable even to a tiny toddler, is the observation on the street for flying snowflakes. If you take a sheet of black velvet paper and go out into the yard in a snowfall, the fallen snowflakes on the sheet will show their flawless crystal structure. After staying a little longer, we get a clear idea of how the pattern of snow is formed.

Increase the cooling rate

Experiment number 2. Interesting experiments with ice can be carried out and individually - for your own son or daughter. Take two large pieces of ice and prepare a couple of cups of hot cocoa. It is more convenient to do it at home. What is the basis of this experience? Most likely, the child already knows how to heat on the stove, for example, a pot of soup.

Hot air rises. But the same property is possessed by water, where the most heated layer will always be at the top. Remind the kid that the soup on the surface of the plate is always hotter than on its bottom.

In the course of our experience, we are going to find out exactly where ice should be placed for the fastest cooling of the liquid. So, your child loves cocoa. If not, prepare another drink, which he will gladly drink. Put one of the cups on a plate of ice, and cover another with the same icy slice. Allow the baby to accurately use the finger and tongue to find out which of the cups the cooling process is moving at a higher speed, and try to think together about why this is happening.

We tell in advance - to cool faster will get a second cup, one that is covered with ice on top. After all, as is known, a cold liquid has the property of falling down, thus speeding up the mixing of the layers.

Flowers from snow

Experiment number 3. For him, prepare a soap solution and a straw. By the time the experiment begins, children should already know that snowflakes are microscopic crystals, the formation of which occurs in clouds in cold weather. The aim of our experience will be to see how this happens.

To conduct it you need to leave the room on a clear frosty day (the air temperature should be low enough). Almost all experiments with ice or snow outside the premises require cold weather - nothing will come out in the thaw.

Try using a straw to blow out a large soap bubble. Snow "flowers" will be formed under a thin layer of film and grow right before your eyes.

In passing, it is worthwhile to demonstrate to the children the process of frost formation. To make it even easier - in the frost we take with us to the street a cup of boiling water and close it from above with something metallic, for example, a lid from a saucepan. Droplets of steam from boiling water will settle on it and quickly turn into frosty crystals into hoar frost crystals.

Growing icicles

Experiment number 4. We need to take a fairly accurate thermometer and attach it to the long pole to measure the temperature on the roof of a small building, such as a shed or garage, and also under this roof. The knowledge that children should have at the beginning of the experiment is simple - almost all preschool children are already aware that at a positive temperature the water melts, with negative ice forming.

This time our experiments with ice will allow us to study the process of the formation of icicles. And find out why they grow on the roofs, and not somewhere else. And why the process goes much faster in sunny weather.

Just in case, please clarify whether it is known to children where such beautiful icicles come from. You can observe in advance their growth on the nearest roofs from the window, choosing a sunny clear day. Focus the child's attention on the paradox - why is there no new icicles in the frost, and they grow only in the bright sun? It would seem that the colder the weather, the more ice should form.

If the kids can not build a logical chain of reasonings themselves, help them. The course of thoughts will be: what is needed to make an icicle? First of all, water, then the surface from where this water can drain a small stream. And, finally, the temperature at which this water turns into ice. The combination of these three conditions is available if, on the background of the minus temperature, the sun begins to warm up.

How does this happen? But this: the sun heats the snow and ice lying on the roof, it begins to melt, the flowing streams of water on the edge of the roof undergo a temperature drop from positive to negative. This jump is explained by the fact that the sun's rays fall on the surface of a smooth and slightly sloping roof at the highest angle, as a result of which it undergoes considerable heating together with the lying snow.

Color the snow in different colors

Experiment number 5. We continue our experiments with snow and ice. To stock up this time will have some plastic bottles, which should be poured hot water, and the water should be tinted with gouache in different colors. The jam in each bottle should be pierced with a needle, making a small hole.

In addition, you will need to take a child's shovel and find in the garden a few surfaces covered with an even layer of snow.

The knowledge that children have at the start of the experiment is that everything (including snow and ice) consists of small particles called molecules. During the experiment, we will clearly demonstrate to children how various objects and substances are colored. And this is due to the penetration of the pigment into the structure of the object that we want to decorate.

Going for a walk after snowfall, when the paths are covered with fresh fluffy snow, give the children a bottle of colored water, hot enough to not immediately froze. Look, where exactly the snow lay layers of different thicknesses.

Invite the children to make colored drawings on the surface, spraying the colored water. This occupation is very interesting in itself. Perhaps, the kids who are carried away by the creative process and do not want to discuss the scientific side of the experience, but it's not scary. Drawing, they will return to the study of the subject.

Offer a scapula to lift the snow and pay attention to the child that the thickness of the painted layer depends on the amount of water poured out and the degree of fluffiness of the snowdrift. If we try to paint dense snowballs or a well-tamped surface, colored water can not penetrate deeper than the uppermost layer. The result will be more obvious, the stronger the frost in the street.

We get the pure ice

Experiment number 6. Stock up with water (ordinary, salty and sweet). First, tell the children that although they know that ocean water is salty, ice on the surface of the Arctic Ocean is not fresh. During the experiment, together with the children, we will find out how the freezing water is released from impurities in the form of sugar and salt.

To prepare for the experiment, prepare several ice cubes beforehand. Each of them, obtained from sweet, salty, as well as the most ordinary fresh water, gently split in half. Ask the children - how do they think, freezing sweet or salt water, we get the same ice?

Most likely, the answer will be positive. But this is wrong - in fact, crystallizing water during the formation of ice gets rid of foreign molecules and impurities. To confirm your words, let the children lick the icy pieces and make sure you are right.

Underwater inhabitants

Experiment number 7. To conduct it, you have to find, apart from the snow, a puddle covered with a clear ice. Kids should already know that the transparent planes allow you to view what is underneath them, opaque - on the contrary. Remind them it is possible, explaining the example of a simple glass.

During the experiment, we will try to discern what is going on at the bottom of a deep puddle or a small pond. If in the vicinity of such a reservoir is not observed, it is necessary to organize it independently - for example, within a plastic bottle of five-liter volume. Lay out on the bottom of the composition of sticks, pebbles, nuts, etc., then pour all the water and put it on the frost. After freezing under a transparent layer of ice, all objects will be clearly seen.

Then, in front of the children, sprinkle the ice with snow, and the contents of the bottle will immediately disappear from sight. Why is this happening? It's simple - snow, unlike ice, is opaque.

In order to increase the cognitive value of the experiment, children can also explain other properties of snow (flowability, friability, softness) and ice (fragility, brittleness, hardness) at the same time. Also mention the possibility of injuring yourself against the sharp edges of the ice and the need for caution.

How Santa Claus is painting us the windows

Experiment number 8. Everyone saw frosty patterns on the window panes. Let's try to reproduce them in "laboratory" conditions. Instead of a window glass, take a piece of plastic or a dry glass plate that will replace the window. Another cup of hot water and a different thickness of the brush is required. The weather on the day of the experiment should be quite frosty.

Taking out the children for a walk, warn them that they will reincarnate as Santa Claus. If the children are already big enough, you can discuss the plot of the future drawing in advance, and even create a sketch on paper.

After leaving on the street, on a dry, pre-wiped glass surface with a brush, carefully apply the pattern with hot water. You need to work quickly until the water is cold. Repeatedly brushing at the same place should not be, but after freezing the picture you can repeat the procedure and make all the lines thicker and more noticeable.

Undoubtedly, there are other experiments with ice. Something you can think of yourself. The main thing is to awaken and support the children's interest in such unusual and diverse natural phenomena!