Case Study – Ice workshop

This is one of many workshops I’ve run with ice – it holds surprise, intrigue, lots of science, maths and literacy potential and is fun.

  • Creatively developing the curriculum topic “materials”
  • Year 5
  • Half day

Materials

Lots of different sized containers (including carrier bags full!) of ice embedded with objects, text, food colouring, foodstuffs, flowers etc.

Children were given a plastic cup to take home, to freeze an object in. Tools to explore and materials to add to the ice to investigate the effects.

The workshop was open and very exploratory – the children experimented in small groups, chipping out the objects, scratching, building constructions with other materials. They scratched out questions embedded in ice and investigated the material properties. They played ice games. The session ended with the group building a large, floor based sculptural installation and group critical discussion about their learning.