Young Naturalist Lesson:

Students explore changing states of matter by squirting colored saltwater into a block of ice to create a colorful shape.

Curriculum Focus:

• Science
• Art

Materials:

Each student or group will need:

• large ice ball (formed inside water balloons placed in a freezer overnight)
• baking pan or similar container to hold ice
• 2 or 3 clean, empty spray bottles with "stream" setting on nozzle
• "paint" solution for each bottle: 3 parts salt to one part warm water, several drops food coloring
   

Activity:

1. Review the Young Naturalist story. Focus on the fact that water is a special material, because it can exist as a liquid, a solid or a gas. Ask students to describe where they see solid and liquid water in winter. Have students share examples of other liquids, solids, or gases they know. Discuss what happens when water changes from a liquid to a solid, and >from a solid to a liquid. If you did the experiments included in the article, discuss results. 
2. You may want to have students wear paint smocks and cover the work area with newspapers
3. The night before doing this activity, fill the necessary number of balloons with water and place them in a freezer.  When you are ready to start the activity, carefully cut the balloons and peel them away from the ice.
4. For older students: Explain that ice melts when it warms to a certain temperature. This temperature is called water's melting point. Explain that when other things are added to ice, this can change the melting point. In other words, you might not need to warm the ice as much to melt it-or you might have to warm it to a higher temperature to make it melt. For example, adding salt to ice lowers its melting point. This means the ice melts more easily. Explain that this is why salt is sprinkled on icy roads in some areas of the country. Tell students they will use this fact to make ice sculptures. The directions are as follows: Set up each group with the materials listed above. Mix the paint solutions (be sure to use warm water) and pour them into spray bottles. Make sure the spray bottles' nozzles are set for "stream" instead of "spray." Have students pour a cup of water over the ice ball to wet it. Direct them to squirt small amounts of the "paint:" on different areas of the ice ball.
5. Students can experiment with forming holes and cracks to create a multi-colored ice sculpture.

Extension idea:
 Create a chunk of ice with an object (such as a raisin) frozen inside. Challenge kids to use the spray bottle to melt a path to the object to free it from the ice. You might have kids record how many squirts it takes or have teams compete to see who can get the object out in he least amount of time