Frost on a Bucket

Skills: Small motor skills. Measuring and stirring. . Difference between warm, cold and freezing. Doing an experiment.

Letters/Sounds: C (cold), E (experiment), F (frost, freezing), I (ice), S (salt)

Supplies:

Directions:

Step 1)

Fill your metal container 1/2 to 3/4 full of ice cubes or crushed ice. Measure the ice by the cup, so you will know how much salt to add in step 2.

Step 2)

Add 4 Tbs of salt for every 1 cup of ice you use.

Step 3)

Stir the ice and salt. Mix well, for about 30 seconds.

Step 4)

Wait for frost to form on your container. This should take between 3-6 minutes.

LET'S THINK ABOUT IT/TALK ABOUT IT

What happened when you added the salt to the ice and stirred it around? What kind of sound did it make?
Was it easy to stir the salt into the ice?
Did you know that when you added the salt to the ice, the salt did some things to the ice that made the ice colder than freezing? Brrr!
If the salt made the ice get freezing-cold, what happened to the bucket? Did it colder, too?
When the metal bucket got very cold, then what happened to the outside of it?
Did you know that there are small bits of water called “moisture” in the air? When moisture in the air collects on the outside of a freezing-cold metal bucket, all those little bits of water freeze too! That is how frost forms