Ice Art - Art & Design: Early Years and Ks1

With many thanks to School Outdoor Learning for contributing these wonderful ideas - Please visit their portal page and website for more information

---

Winter is a great opportunity to use the cold weather to create ice activities with your children. Here are some ideas to use ice in a creative and interesting way. We hope that you find them useful and enjoyable.

Overview of the Activity
Using creative techniques to explore freezing and melting water.

Equipment Required
Large shallow trays, jugs of water, selection of natural materials, short lengths of plastic tube (2-4 cm), string or rope.
​
Learning Objectives
·         To understand that water freezes in very cold temperatures.
·         To learn about and understand the changing of the seasons.
·         To create textures and develop language to describe them.
·         To work collaboratively in small groups.

Pre-activity scaffolding
Spend time discussing the weather in the lead up to the activity and encourage pupils to watch a weather forecast at home and to decide when would be the best time to conduct the activity. Look at the standing water outside in puddles and ponds. Also look at videos and pictures of snow and ice scenes. 

Main Activity

• Collect a large selection of natural and recycled materials from the outdoors such as pebbles, leaves, twigs, bark, shells, drink cans, plastic containers, etc.

• Place a large shallow tray or dish on the ground or a low table where pupils can develop their art installation. Have the pupils arrange the materials on the tray or in the dish. It doesn’t matter if they hang over the side.
• Fill the container with water and leave outside overnight on a night when it’s likely to freeze. Before you leave it place the plastic tube in one corner (at least 7 cm from each edge). Once the water has frozen this will create a hole in the ice sheet from which to hang the ‘sculpture’.
• Return to the container the next day to see what has happened. Talk about the ice, allow pupils to touch their ‘sculptures’ and describe what it feels like and what the frozen objects inside look like.
• The final act is to hang the sculptures from a tree or post outside using rope threaded through the hole that has been created with the plastic tube in the corner. Observe the sculpture during the day, does it melt or stay the same, do bits fall off? Take pictures to be shown to parents and other members of the school.

Art
Apps
Assemblies
Assessment
Behaviour
Blogs
Computing
Classroom Resources (General)
CPD
Design & Technology
EAL
English
EYFS
Field Visits
Geography
History
Languages
Mathematics
Music
​Outdoor Learning
PE
PHSE
RE
​Safeguarding
Seasonal
Science
SEN
Topics
Weblinks

Extension Activities

• Use a variety of different shaped containers. Add food colouring or paint to the water before freezing.
• Encourage pupils to visit the sculptures during the day to estimate how long the freezing/melting takes.
• Find ways to catch the melting water and recycle it so it can be re-used.

There are many other ice art sculptures that you can create such as:

• Using ice cubes to build an igloo for a small animal or fictional character.
  
• Try using balloons with water in to create ‘ice baubles’.
  
• Try creating ice windows from thin sections of water in the bottom of shallow trays etc. etc.