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Home » Early Years Science » Colourful ice and some salt

Colourful ice and some salt

Modified: Jan 9, 2025 · Published: Jan 28, 2015 by Emma Vanstone · This post may contain affiliate links · 1 Comment

I’ve gone a bit ice crazy this week, and my freezer is full of all kinds of weird and wonderful creations, which I’ll be showing you soon. First up is this block that I froze with straws inside. After letting it melt for a while, we removed the straws and poured coloured water through, so we could see the path. It worked brilliantly, so next time, I’m going to try a swirly tube.

a large block of ice with a pipe cleaner twisted inside
A large block of ice with a gap from a straw that was frozen inside.

Next, we poured some warm water down the straw hole to see what happened.

a large block of ice in a glass tray

You can see here that the warm water has melted the ice, and the straw hole is much bigger.

The video shows this in action.


We then tried adding salt to our ice. You can see here that the parts of the block with salt on top have melted faster than the rest.

DSC_0034

What did we learn?

We learned that warm water melts ice faster than cold water.

Why does salt melt ice?

Salt makes ice melt faster. This is because salt lowers the freezing point of water.

Other ideas to try

Try to freeze salty water and experiment to find out if it melts faster than non-salty water.

Freeze a block of ice so two colours can be run through it.

If you enjoyed this activity, don’t forget to check out my other ice experiments for kids.

Last Updated on January 9, 2025 by Emma Vanstone

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Science Sparks ( Wild Sparks Enterprises Ltd ) are not liable for the actions of activity of any person who uses the information in this resource or in any of the suggested further resources. Science Sparks assume no liability with regard to injuries or damage to property that may occur as a result of using the information and carrying out the practical activities contained in this resource or in any of the suggested further resources.

These activities are designed to be carried out by children working with a parent, guardian or other appropriate adult. The adult involved is fully responsible for ensuring that the activities are carried out safely.

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Comments

  1. Regina

    March 08, 2017 at 5:24 pm

    Such a deep anewrs! GD&RVVF

    Reply

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