Our class topic this term is, “Winter and Cold Lands”.  At the beginning of the term the children took part in small group discussions  and talked about what they already know about this theme and what they want to know/ find out.  Here are some of the questions they came up with:

Where do Penguins live?

Why does snow fall from the sky?

Where do polar bears live?

Why do the leaves fall off of the trees?

Who lives in igloos?

Why is snow white?

Why does snow go away?

Why do we get snow and ice?

As you can see they have come up with lots of great questions and we are now trying to answer as many of them as we can.

We have carried out science experiments to help develop our understanding of ice and what causes it to form/ melt.  During these experiments we spoke about solids and liquids, freezing and melt and high temperatures and low temperatures.

Frozen Man/Lady

In the experiment below the children had to free the duplo man/lady.  First they tried using different objects to break and melt the ice but they soon discovered this didn’t work so after some discussion they decided to try and use their hands.  They were able to conclude that this was more effective because their hands were warm and this melted the ice allowing them to free the duplo man/lady.  During and after the experiment we talked about how the ice had turned from a solid to a liquid.