The story behind it
By TurkeyMom · February 2014
Ages3–8 yrs
Prep10 min
Activity30 min
Leveleasy
MessHigh
Works for1:1 · Small group · Class
Set heart-shaped ice blocks on heavy watercolor paper, sprinkle them with salt, then drip liquid watercolors with pipettes. Kids watch the color travel through the cracks and tunnels as the hearts melt into colorful art. It's science, art and fine-motor practice rolled into one.
⚠️ Safety first
- Supervise closely. Salt and liquid watercolors are not food, and eating salt in quantity is harmful to young children.
- Keep salty hands away from eyes and any cuts, and wash hands after play.
- Liquid watercolors can stain hands, clothes and surfaces.
- Colored water drips off the paper. Cover the floor and wipe up puddles promptly so no one slips.
- Salted ice gets very cold. Let kids take breaks from handling it if their hands get uncomfortable.
Before the kids arrive
- Fill heart cups, heart baking pans or other heart-shaped containers with water and freeze until solid.
- Optionally freeze water in a tiny snack cup to make an ice mound 'volcano'.
Steps
Cover the floor (or the table and the floor under it) with a vinyl cloth or cheap table cover.
Pop the ice hearts out of the molds and set out salt, liquid watercolors and pipettes.
Place the ice hearts on a sheet of heavy watercolor paper.
Sprinkle salt from the bowl all over the ice hearts.
Watch for the little tunnels and cracks the salt makes as it melts the ice.
Use a pipette to drop liquid watercolor onto the ice and watch the color travel through the cracks.
Watch the hearts melt on the paper into colorful streams.
Move the hearts around the paper so it soaks up all the color.
Squish and handle the soft, salty ice hearts.
Lift off the leftover ice and admire the color-soaked watercolor paper.
Tips
- It is best to do this on the floor covered with a vinyl cloth or a cheap table cover. On a table, cover your floor, or you'll get small colored puddles dripping off the watercolor paper.from the author
- Any coarse salt or even Epsom salt should be great, but we just used table salt this time. The results were just as fabulous.from the author
- Since we are color junkies, we kept moving the hearts all around the paper so it could soak up all the color.from the author
- Expect it to turn into sensory play. The ice hearts got so squishy that it was plain fun to handle them.from the author
- Look closely as it melts. The hearts soon look like a tiny crystal garden, with gorgeous little spikes.from the author
- A chance happening: the center of one heart melted away faster than the edges, leaving a beautiful 'heart jewel'.from the author
- Don't toss the paper! It soaks up all the color and makes lovely watercolor art on its own.from the author
Make it your own
- Freeze water in a tiny snack cup and turn it upside down for a pretend ice 'volcano' and some imaginative play.
- For grade schoolers, make it a true science experiment: have kids observe and identify changes and hypothesize about what's really going on.
- Try coarse salt or Epsom salt instead of table salt.
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