This half-term at Nursery, we are looking closely at materials and noticing how they change, as we develop our skills as ACE Scientists! Throughout the half-term, we will explore how we can make changes to materials as we think, predict and test out ideas as we develop our sense of wonder. This week, water, ice and glue were the materials of choice for our experimentation!
From ice… to water!
At the start of the week, our interest was captured when we noticed ice in our water tray! We looked closely at the blocks of ice and noticed polar animals hiding inside. “They are stuck”, said Sunny, “How do we get them?”. We shared our thinking with one another as we enjoyed feeling the cold ice on our hands. We noticed that some of the ice melted into water as we continued to touch it. “It’s melting!”, shouted Finley with great excitement. We thought about why this might be and decided that we are much warmer than the ice itself. We continued to share our thoughts and ideas, until we decided to use warm water to melt it. We tested out our idea and all got to work, concentrating carefully as we used containers, pipettes and syringes to add warm water to the ice. We maintained our focus on what we were doing and watched as more and more ice melted away and the water tray began to fill with water. We didn’t stop until we reached our goal and the polar animals were free to play with in the water. Together, we celebrated our achievement! Fantastic teamwork and collaboration!
From glue… to slime!
We continued to experiment with making changes to different materials by having a go at making slime together for one of our focused activities. We first looked at the materials that we would be using; glue, glitter and a special activator gel. We wondered together about how we could use our materials to make slime. “Mixing it!”, said Sara excitedly. We put on our aprons and sat together, waiting patiently as we passed the bowl and the ingredients around the table. We each had a go at adding some glue and then some glitter into the bowl. Miss Bramham explained that the special activator would change our ingredients from glue to slime. We added it in and each had a turn at using a wooden spoon to mix our materials. We all looked closely as we mixed, watching as the colours swirled and it turned from white to blue. We then used our hands and fingers to knead the slime; pushing, pulling and turning it over to stop it from being sticky. We kept going until it didn’t stick to our fingers. We had lots of fun engaging in malleable play with our finished slime!
We have had lots of fun being ACE Scientists this week, developing our sense of wonder as we watch materials change before our eyes! We will continue to discover, explore and experiment with materials throughout the half-term at Nursery and we welcome home observations that link to our learning. We would love to see some examples on Tapestry of cooking/baking, outdoor or messy play activities that look at changes in materials, as we continue to share our own experiences together!