Will it slide?

Today we embark on a brand new thematic unit–Penguins! To start us off, we read my favorite penguin book, Tacky the Penguin.  Next, we talked about how penguins like to slide on ice.

After that, we decided to try our very own experiment to see which toys slide on ice and which don’t.

Here’s what you’ll need to conduct your own experiment:  a shallow pan, water, and 5 (more or less) items to test. You’ll also want a pen and paper to make a table showing the results.

1. Add water to a shallow pan and then let it freeze. We just stuck ours outside overnight.

2. Make a recording sheet on paper (or a markerboard). In the meantime, let your little one choose 5 small toys to test to see whether they’ll slide or not. I’m sorry I couldn’t get the picture to rotate!

3. Put a bowl underneath the pan to create a small angle.

4. Let your little one start testing out their objects! Prior to each, have your child make a prediction about whether that specific object will slide or not.

Doesn’t slide!

5. Record the results.

All done! (again…sorry for the picture not rotating)

Afterwards, we talked about whether more objects slid or didn’t slide. We then counted how many in each column. This was a super easy “science experiment” that we both enjoyed!