Cold weather offers natural ways to teach kids how water freezes and melts using real-world observation and playful questions.
Cold temperatures and the first snow of the season bring about great opportunities to spark interest in science.
When we use words like snow, ice, melting, freezing, colder and warmer, we can help children make connections between the weather they observe outside and how a liquid, like water, can freeze, change and become a solid (ice) and melt back to liquid again.
In the new PBS KIDS series Weather Hunters, you can follow the adventures of force of nature Lily Hunter and her family. The new STEM series for ages 5-8 inspires curiosity about weather and climate.
Questions to Ask Your Child
- Think about water activities we do when it's cold or hot. When can you swim? When can you go sledding? When can you build a snowman? When can you go fishing?
- Check the weather forecast together and talk about the temperature. Ask what would happen if you set a piece of ice outside your door. Would it melt or stay frozen?
- Record precipitation, temperature and cloud cover on a weather chart, or use a calendar to record the number of cold days in a week or sunny days in a month.
Adapted from PBS Parents