Experiments are understood as observations of natural phenomena organized under special conditions. They can be held in kindergarten. Preschoolers can fully understand for themselves not only the external manifestations of natural facts, but also the obvious relationships between them.
Are experiments necessary for preschoolers?
What patterns can a kindergarten child understand? One can confidently speak about various states of substances, their transition to other qualities, features of air, the ability of sand to pass water and the like.
Experiments for preschoolers help to hone logical thinking, ability to compare and make correct conclusions. Children learn to formulate their own judgments, as well as defend them.
Each of them should be based on the ideas that the child has at the time the experiment begins. Moreover, children should take an active part in the process. When discussing the results with them, preschoolers should be encouraged to make independent judgments. Thanks to the simple experiments of kids, you can get acquainted with a considerable number of characteristics of water, clay, sand, etc.
As an example, we consider ice experiments for kindergarten children that explain the properties of water, as well as its other well-known condition - ice. It would seem that water is a long-familiar and familiar substance to everyone, but how much unknown a child can recognize in a well-prepared experiment!
Boiled ice
So let's get started. In the first of our experiments, fire, water, and ice are involved. More precisely, we will try to combine ice and boiling water. The simple equipment that we need for this consists of a test tube, an alcohol burner, a weight, as well as cold water and several ice floes. In general, experiments with ice in the older group (or preparatory - it is still difficult for children to understand them) do not require a large number of complex tools and instruments.
What does the child know at the time the experiment begins? Preschoolers usually already know that in hot (not to mention boiling) water, ice tends to melt quickly. Let’s try to find out (this will be the goal of our experience) - is it possible: the water boils, but the ice remains solid.
How the experiment is conducted: take a test tube and fill it with water, then throw a piece of ice there. And since it is lighter than water and has the ability to float, we press it down with a copper weight, but at the same time the ice should be surrounded on all sides by water.
And fire, and water, and ice - be careful!
Then we begin to heat the upper part of the test tube in the flame of an alcohol burner - it is only its upper part. After a very short period of time, the water begins to boil - steam is released from the test tube. But why does not the ice lying on the bottom melt, what a miracle of nature?
The trick is that boiling water is only in the upper part of the test tube, and at the bottom it remains cold, that is, our ice is not "in boiling water", but "under boiling water". As you know, under the influence of heat, the water tends to expand and become lighter, therefore, boiling water does not think to sink to the bottom and mix with cold. The interaction of the upper hot and lower cold layers does not occur, the lower part of the test tube can be heated only by thermal conductivity, but, as you know, this indicator is not too high for water.
By the way, the simplest experiments with ice and snow, understandable even to a tiny baby, are observing flying snowflakes on the street. If you take a sheet of black velvet paper and go out into the yard in snowfall, the falling snowflakes on the sheet will demonstrate their perfect crystal structure. After standing a little longer, we get a visual representation of how a pattern of snow is formed.
We increase the cooling rate
Experiment number 2. Interesting experiments with ice can be carried out individually - for your own son or daughter. Take two large pieces of ice and make a couple cups of hot cocoa. It is more convenient to do at home. What is this experience based on? Most likely, the child already knows how to heat on the stove, for example, a saucepan with soup.
Hot air rises. But water has the same property, where the warmest layer will always be at the top. Remind the baby that the soup on the surface of the plate is always hotter than at the bottom.
In the course of our experience, we are going to find out exactly where to put ice for the quickest cooling of the liquid. So your child loves cocoa. If not, make another drink that he will drink with pleasure. Place one of the cups on an ice plate and cover the other with the same ice slice. Let the baby carefully determine with a finger and tongue in which of the cups the cooling process moves at a faster speed, and try to think together why this is happening.
We tell you in advance - it will be faster to cool the second cup, the one that is covered with ice on top. After all, as you know, a cold liquid tends to sink down, thereby accelerating the mixing of the layers.
Snow flowers
Experiment number 3. For him, prepare a soap solution and a straw. By the time the experiment begins, children should already know that snowflakes are microscopic crystals that form in the clouds in cold weather. The goal of our experience will be just to see how this happens.
To conduct it, you need to leave the room on a clear frosty day (air temperature should be quite low). Almost all experiments with ice or snow outdoors require cold weather - nothing will come of the thaw.
Try blowing a large soap bubble through a straw. Snowy "flowers" will form under a thin layer of film and grow right before your eyes.
Along the way, it is worth demonstrating to children the frost formation process. To make it even easier - in the cold we take a cup of boiling water with us to the street and close it with something metallic on top, for example, a lid from a saucepan. Drops of steam from boiling water will settle on it and quickly turn into frost crystals in the frosty air.
We grow icicles
Experiment number 4. We will need to take a sufficiently accurate thermometer and attach it to a long pole to measure the temperature on the roof of a small building, such as a barn or garage, as well as under this roof. The knowledge that children should have at the beginning of the experiment is simple - almost all preschoolers are already aware that at a positive temperature, water melts, and at negative temperatures, ice forms.
This time, our experiments with ice will allow us to study the process of formation of icicles. And find out why they grow on the roofs, and not somewhere else. And why the process is much faster in sunny weather.
Just in case, check if the children know where such beautiful icicles come from. You can observe in advance their growth on the nearest roofs from the window, choosing a sunny clear day. Focus children's attention on the paradox - why in the cold new icicles do not form, and they grow only in the bright sun? It would seem that the colder the weather, the more ice should form.
If the kids are not able to build a logical chain of reasoning themselves, help them. The train of thought will be this: what is needed for an icicle to appear? First of all, water, then the surface, from where this water can drain a small stream. And finally, the temperature at which this water turns into ice. A combination of these three conditions is available if, against the background of subzero temperature, the sun begins to warm.
How does this happen? But like this: the sun heats the snow and ice lying on the roof, it begins to melt, trickles of water flowing on the edge of the roof undergo a temperature difference from positive to negative. This jump is explained by the fact that the sun's rays fall on the surface of a smooth and slightly sloping roof at the largest angle, as a result of which it undergoes significant heating along with the lying snow.
Paint the snow in different colors
Experiment number 5. We continue our experiments with snow and ice. This time you have to stock up on a certain number of plastic bottles, into which you need to pour hot water, and the water should be tinted with gouache in different colors. The stopper in each bottle should be pierced with a needle, making a small hole.
In addition, you will need to take a children's shovel and find on the territory of the kindergarten several surfaces covered with an even layer of snow.
The knowledge that children possess at the time of the start of the experiment is that everything (including snow and ice) consists of small particles called molecules. During the experiment, we will clearly demonstrate to children how various objects and substances are painted. And this happens due to the penetration of the pigment into the structure of the object that we want to decorate.
Going for a walk after the snowfall, when the paths are covered with fresh fluffy snow, give the children a bottle of colored water that is hot enough to not freeze immediately. See exactly where the snow lay in layers of different thicknesses.
Have the children draw color patterns on its surface by spraying colored water. Such an activity in itself is very interesting. Perhaps the kids who are keen on the creative process will not want to discuss the scientific side of the experience, but this is not scary. Having drawn, they will return to the study of the subject.
Offer to raise the snow with a spatula and pay attention to the fact that the thickness of the stained layer depends on the amount of water poured and the degree of fluff of the snowdrift. If we try to paint dense snowballs or a well-compacted surface, colored water will not be able to penetrate deeper than the topmost layer. The result will be more visible, the stronger the frost on the street.
Get clean ice
Experiment number 6. Stock up on water (ordinary, salty and sweet). To begin with, inform the children that although, as they know, the ocean water is salty, the ice on the surface of the Arctic Ocean is fresh. During the experiment, together with the children, we will find out how the freezing water is freed from impurities in the form of sugar and salt.
To conduct the experiment, prepare several ice cubes in advance. Each of them, obtained from sweet, salty, as well as the most ordinary fresh water, gently chop in half. Take an interest in children - as they consider, freezing sweet or salty water, we will receive the same ice?
Most likely, the answer will be yes. But this is wrong - in fact, the water that crystallizes during the formation of ice gets rid of foreign molecules and impurities. To confirm your words, let the children lick the ice pieces and make sure you are right.
Underwater inhabitants
Experiment number 7. To conduct it, you have to, in addition to snow, find a puddle covered with transparent ice. Kids should already know that transparent planes allow you to consider what is under them, opaque - on the contrary. You can remind them of this by explaining with the example of plain glass.
During the experiment, we will try to discern what is happening at the bottom of a deep puddle or a small pond. If such a reservoir is not observed in the vicinity, you will have to organize it yourself - for example, within a plastic bottle of a five-liter volume. Lay out at the bottom a composition of sticks, pebbles, nuts, etc., then fill everything with water and put in the cold. After freezing under a transparent layer of ice, all objects will be clearly visible.
Then, in front of the eyes of children, sprinkle ice with snow, and the contents of the bottle immediately disappear from sight. Why is this happening? Everything is simple - snow, in contrast to ice, is opaque.
To increase the cognitive value of the experiment, along the way, one can explain to children other properties of snow (flowability, friability, softness) and ice (brittleness, brittleness, hardness). Mention the possibility of injuring yourself on the sharp edges of the ice floes and the need to be careful.
How Santa Claus paints us windows
Experiment number 8. Everyone saw the frosty patterns on the window panes. Let's try to reproduce them in "laboratory" conditions. Instead of window glass, take a piece of plastic or a dry glass plate, which will replace our window. Still need a cup of hot water and various thicknesses of the brush. Weather on the day of the experiment should be quite frosty.
When taking children for a walk, warn them that they will have to reincarnate as Santa Claus. If the children are already big enough, you can discuss the plot of the future drawing in advance, and even create a sketch on paper.
Having gone outside, on a dry previously wiped surface of glass with a brush, gently apply a pattern with hot water. You need to work quickly until the water has frozen. Repeatedly brush with the same place should not be, but after freezing the picture you can repeat the procedure and make all the lines thicker and more noticeable.
Undoubtedly, there are other experiments with ice. You can come up with something yourself. The main thing is to arouse and support the interest of children in such unusual and diverse natural phenomena!