Slip Sliding on Ice Lesson Plan

Academic Standards

Children will examine the different properties of ice.

properties of ice and snow

critical thinking

ice, freeze, frozen, melt, shiver, skate, slippery, snow

RI.K.1, RF.K.3.A, SL.K.2

Before watching our video When Water Freezes, ask kids where they think ice comes from and let them share their ideas.
After watching, ask kids if they were surprised by anything they learned. What kinds of ice have they seen in real life?

Kids will love playing in the digital snow with our online game Build Your Own Snowman. It also boosts vocabulary, shapes, and number skills!
In our S Is for Snow skill sheet, kids hunt a snowy scene for hidden things that start with S!

Materials: ice cubes, several zip-close plastic bags

Make ice cubes and put one or two into each bag. Work with kids to decide a few different places to put the bags. For instance, you might place one on a sunny windowsill, one outside, one on a shelf, and one in the refrigerator.
Have kids predict which bags of ice will melt faster and which will melt slower. Why do they think so?
Keep tabs on all your bags of ice. As each bag finishes melting, write on chart paper the place you kept it.
You should have a list that shows the order in which the bags melted, from first to last. Kids will see that the list goes from the warmest place to the coldest place. That’s because ice melts faster the warmer it gets!