With winter’s cold hanging on, it’s time for daydreams of springtime and all the exciting (and warm) changes ahead. While we wait for the ice to thaw and the flowers to bloom, it seems the perfect time to think like scientists and explore how the properties of hot and cold affect the world around us ⎯ starting with water! The earth is roughly 75% water, you know.
Investigate the science of freezing and melting, the phases of matter, and how water is one of the most wonderful natural resources of all by using the engaging videos, fun activities, and crafts below.
Then, keep the fun going with Learn Along Bingo sheets full of printable activities and everyday learning ideas for children grades Pre-K to 2!
Jump to article sections:
Discover the Properties of Water
Moving Water
Grades K-2
Explore how water found in oceans, rivers, and other water bodies changes form and flows downward in this video gallery produced by WGBH. Liquid water is found in water bodies across the planet. In locations where freezing temperatures occur, liquid water turns to solid ice. Students can use the video gallery to explore and identify characteristics of water and describe how water is found in different forms in different locations on Earth.
Heating and Cooling | Hero Elementary
Grades K-2
In these Hero Elementary activities, children explore how materials change when heated and cooled. For example, if you cool a liquid, it may become solid. What happens when you reverse the process and heat the solid—does it become liquid again? Children will discover that some changes are reversible and others are not.
States of Matter | Science Trek
Grades 3-5
This episode of IdahoPTV’s Science Trek defines matter as anything that takes up space and has weight. You will see examples of different kinds of matter and learn that matter can have a physical change but not change its chemical make-up – like water as a vapor, a solid block of ice, or the liquid we drink!
Lesson 102: Other Ways to Heat a Planet
Grades 6-12
In this experiment from Genius by Stephen Hawking, Stephen asks if it’s possible for life to exist beyond the “Goldilocks Zone”–the perfect distance from a star where water can exist in liquid form. He asks his volunteers to melt an ice cube with no heat source–hoping they can figure out another way planets may generate heat.
Crafts, Interactives & Activities
Ice Towers – Designing Your Tower: Wander & Wonder | Young Explorers
Grades PreK-2
What does it mean to have a solid foundation? Abby Brown and her friend use their engineering skills to create and design amazing structures using ice. Can you follow these directions and do the same?
Testing Insulators: Ice Cube in a Box
Grades 3-8
In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, the cast competes to see which team can more effectively slow the melting of an ice cube. They construct containers for their ice cubes using materials like cardboard, newspaper, aluminum foil, and tape. These containers create an insulating environment designed to keep heat away from the ice cube. After watching the video, conduct your own at-home experiment with the “Keep-a-Cube activity handout” in the Student Support Materials section!
Seven Surface Tension Experiments | Physics Girl
Grades 6-12
Surface tension holds the surface molecules of liquids, like water, tightly together and makes for some fun experiments!
Phases of Matter: Interactive Lesson | UNC-TV Science
Grades 6-12
Solids, liquids and gases comprise the three phases of matter. Learn about each of these phases, and how the addition and removal of thermal energy (also known as heat) affects them, with this interactive lesson.
Learn Along Bingo
With Learn Along Bingo, children can view, explore, and play as they learn alongside their PBS Kids friends on the PBS Kids 24/7 channel. We hope your family will use it to inspire learning each and every day.
This time, we’re learning and playing with water while exploring the freezing and melting process. Water is one of nature’s natural resources. We learn that water can exist as solid ice and in liquid form!
Grades PreK-K
Play & Learn: In this packet, there are printable activities and everyday learning ideas for you and your child to choose from. As you complete each square, mark it off to celebrate the learning!
Grades 1-2
Play & Learn: In this packet, there are printable activities and everyday learning ideas for you and your child to choose from. As you complete each square, mark it off to celebrate the learning!
For even more games and educational resources for young learners, go to the Learn and Play With Water Collection on PBS Kids for Parents.