Melting Monsters

A fun experiment making monster ice cubes and exploring how to make them melt. 

The set up for the melting part of the activity.

What you need:

- food colouring and water

- googly eyes

- ice cube tray (we used a rectangle shape but any shape is good)

- large plastic play tub (or the bath tub is fine)

- selection of tools such as tongs, scoops, jugs and buckets

- table salt

- warm water in jugs or pots

How to make the monster ice cubes:

My son has always loved playing with water and food colouring so I knew that he would enjoy this part of the activity. I gave him lots of different jugs filled with small amounts of water and he chose which colours of food colouring to mix to make the monster colours. He then poured the coloured water surprisingly carefully into the ice cube tray. He added different numbers of googly eyes for each monster and then we put them in the freezer overnight. 

Before putting all the materials away I let my son just enjoy experimenting with leftover water and colours which he always finds exciting.

1.Colouring the water.

2. Pouring coloured water.

3. Adding the googly eyes.

4. Monster ice cubes.

Experimenting with how to make melting monsters:

The day after we made the monster ice cubes we got set up ready to experiment with how we could make the monsters melt. My son knew that he had to make the ice warm to help it melt. He chose to use the pots of warm water to pour onto the monster ice cubes (he had enjoyed using the food colouring so much that I let him colour the warm water before pouring it on). He noticed that the monsters started to melt and quite quickly some of their eyes even fell off. 

He continued to pour on warm water and used some of the tools to mix the melting monster colours together. I encouraged him to feel the monsters and describe how they were changing. 

After a while my son noticed the pot of salt and asked what it was for. We talked about how that when it snows the trucks spread salty grit on the roads (he had seen this the day before) and that salt helps ice to melt. He enjoyed pouring it on the monsters to see what happened. 

My son continued to use the tools and buckets to transfer his monsters in and out of the 'melting tub' until they were all in liquid form.

Adding warm water.

Collecting the monster eyes.

Feeling the melting monsters.

Adding salt.