Fun-A-Day!

fun & meaningful learning every day

  • About
    • Terms of Use
    • Printing Help
  • Privacy
  • Newsletter
  • Home
  • Early Learning
    • Preschool Arts and Crafts
    • Literacy
      • Letters & Words
    • Math
    • Music
    • Science
    • Sensory
  • Themes
    • Holidays & Seasons
      • Summer
      • Fall
  • Teacher Tips
  • Free Printables
  • Slime
  • Shop
Home / Early Learning / Preschool Arts and Crafts / Name Ice Melting Science and Art Experiment

Name Ice Melting Science and Art Experiment

Shared by Mary Catherine 7 Comments

This was one of those activities that started out one way, then took off in a different direction! My son and I had a blast with a name ice melting idea that turned into an art and science experiment.

Colorful Ice Melting Science and Art

Table of Contents

  • ice melting experiment with names
  • Done-for-You Preschool Resources

ice melting experiment with names

I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

I asked Engineer if he had any ice-themed ideas he wanted to try for this week’s Early Childhood Education activity. We’ve been off school for a few days due to weather, so I wasn’t able to try one out with my preschoolers. He thought about it and decided something with names would be fun because he knows I’m teaching my preschoolers a lot of concepts with their names. His idea was originally name ice sculptures!

Name ice melting

We grabbed our well-loved letter ice cube trays and started to fill them with water. That is, until Engineer spied the glitter liquid watercolors out on the kitchen counter. I knew we’d have some time off from school because of snow, so I brought my personal stash home from the classroom. Some people stock up on bread; I make sure we have enough art supplies. The kiddo suggested adding the glitter watercolors to the water so we could have some fun ice cube letters. We decided to use glittery purple, glittery yellow, and glittery turquoise.

Ice melting experiment with names

Once the icy letters were ready to go, we popped out some of the letters. We made a few names, deciding to start with mine. Once Engineer saw the colorful ice letters, he wanted to break out the salt. He loves exploring how ice melts, so we settled on that instead of name sculptures. Before we got started, Engineer shared some predictions about how long he thought it would take for the ice to melt once salt was poured on it.

Ice melting with colorful names

My name was placed on a tray, and then we sprinkled it with salt. Watching the colored ice melt was such fun! I commented that it looked like both an art and science experiment, so we added some white construction paper to the mix. Next time, we’re going to try this with sturdier watercolor paper, though.

Love how fun and engaging this name ice melting is

We had fun watching the salt eat away at the icy letters. Engineer, of course, decided to add more salt on top of the letters after a while. We didn’t treat this as a truly scientific experiment obviously – otherwise we would have been a bit more precise in measuring and keeping track of the salt we used. We left my name on the tray, covered with salt.

Glittery, colorful name ice melting

While waiting for my name to melt, the kiddo and I decided to see if it would be different if the salt was underneath the letters. We discussed a few possible end results, then decided to set everything up. We put more construction paper into another tray. Salt was added to the tray, followed by another name (hi, Peg!) and extraneous letters.

Name and letter ice melting

While the first experimental set up fascinated us because of the salt eating away at the ice, the second experiment grabbed our attention for a different reason. Once we added a thicker layer of salt, we loved watching the watercolors as they were absorbed by the salt. Just beautiful!

Love this colors in this name and letter ice melting activity

Related: Fun Science Experiment with Fizzy Stars

In the end, we were both off in terms of how long it took the icy names to melt. We loved keeping track of the ice melting process, as well as observing how the watercolors added a new dimension. One of the things that entertained us the most was that the glitter stayed in the letter shape once the ice was melted! That is, until we stuck our fingers into the colorful salt and mixed everything up!

Ice melting activity with colorful letters and names

We came away from this ice melting science and art project with a few pretty pieces of art, a ton of smiles, and some beautiful pictures. I am positive we’ll be trying this again, and I know my preschool kiddos will get a kick out of it!

For more ice-themed activities, please see what the rest of the #TeachECE group is up to:

Ice Slide Segmenting Activity by Growing Book by Book
Alphabet Ice Rescue by Learning 2 Walk
Ice Alphabet Letters by Still Playing School
Name Ice Melting Science and Art Experiment by Fun-A-Day
Slippery Ice Customizable Name Game by Life Over C’s
Sight Word Ice Excavation by Mom Inspired Life
Magic Sticky Ice-Simple Temperature  Experiment by Capri + 3
Ice Cube Tray Math Games for Preschool! By The Preschool Toolbox Blog
Ice Painting by Powerful Mothering
Simple Science | Ice Fishing Experiment by Raising Lifelong Learners

Done-for-You Preschool Resources

Planning meaningful lessons for students week after week, all while balancing other teaching responsibilities and a personal life, can be a daunting task. That’s where Preschool Teacher 101 comes in to save you time!

Preschool Teacher 101 is excited to share with you some amazing lesson plans, activity packs, and much more! We offer a wide variety of themes that are frequently used in preschool classrooms, as well as some less common (but super interesting) themes. Click on the images below to learn more about some of my favorite chilly resources!

Preschool Snowman Theme Plans
Snowman Lesson Plans
Preschool Arctic lesson plan cover
Arctic Lesson Plans
Snowflakes lesson plan cover image with thumbnails of printable and cartoon of child wearing snow suit, hat, and mittens.
Snowflakes Lesson Plans

Join The Pack from Preschool Teacher 101 today for exclusive access to our amazing products. And we even have three different membership options to suit your needs!

Name ice Melting - what a fun blend of science, art, and literacy

Filed Under: Preschool Arts and Crafts, Science Tagged With: #TeachECE, Names

Previous article:
« 10 Books for a Preschool Pajama Day
Next article:
No-Prep Activities for Teaching Syllables »

Comments

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  1. Jodie says

    January 27, 2016 at 7:57 am

    Wow, so neat! I think I’m more amazed by the beautiful pictures you captured during this play.

    Reply
  2. Devany says

    January 27, 2016 at 8:03 am

    So pretty! I love the pictures!

    Reply
  3. Theresa says

    January 27, 2016 at 12:14 pm

    That looks like so much fun! I think I need letter ice cube molds.

    Reply
  4. Amanda Boyarshinov says

    January 28, 2016 at 12:11 pm

    What a great way to combine science and reading!

    Reply
  5. Natasha Johnson-Ivy says

    January 30, 2016 at 2:22 am

    This is a beautiful colorful mess!

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      July 23, 2016 at 6:06 pm

      Yes, exactly! 😉

      Reply
  6. Nicole @ Modern preschool says

    January 30, 2016 at 8:01 am

    I just love this activity! Can’t wait to try this with my preschoolers.

    Reply
shop button

My name is Mary Catherine, and I love to share meaningful {and fun} learning activities for kiddos! Feel free to browse and stay awhile!

Past Fun!

Search the Fun!

Fun by Categories!

Copyright ©2023, Fun-A-Day!. All Rights Reserved. Custom design by Pixel Me Designs