Over the past few months, the toddler room educators have been working on an ongoing goal to bring the environment into the children's play and learning. The steady supply of ice and snow recently may not be everybody's favourite part of the season, but it does make for an excellent manner of discovery that can take place both indoors and out.
In the first week back from our holiday closure, we prepared some ice for an activity by filling water balloons with water and a few drops of food colouring, then leaving them outside to freeze. A few days later, it was time to bring the bin inside and explore. We discovered that during the freezing process, many of the balloons had leaked or fully popped, leaving the remaining balloons partially or fully encased in a block of blue ice underneath a layer of fresh snow. This unintentionally mixed medium created the perfect visualisation of states of matter and the effects of temperature on water.
The toddlers excitedly gathered around the table where the bin was placed and were each given a bowl or cup of warm water along with an eye dropper. Having used the droppers in baking soda and vinegar experiments before, many of them were eager to practise with them again, and confidently demonstrated how their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills have progressed over time. They worked together to spray the water into the ice and snow, observing how it quickly began to melt the snow and uncover the water balloons (which the children soon dubbed "eggs") underneath.
As the balloons were gradually pulled free from the ice block, the educators were able to see the unique thinking processes and methods of discovery used by each individual child. One took handfuls of snow out of the bin and put them into his bowl of water to watch it melt; another held and squished a balloon that had melted enough for her to feel the ball of ice inside move around in the surrounding water. However they chose to engage, they were led by their own natural curiosity that guided them in learning about the connections between water, ice, and snow. They became their own science teachers in this exercise of creating and answering their own questions about cause and effect using materials given to us by the environment.
