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Indoor Winter Water Play and Experiment with Snow

Does it snow where you live? It does here and some years its gets to the point where we either a) can’t go outside due to weather or b) don’t want to go outside due to winter never ending!! I love winter but sometimes it is a bit much – some years there is just to much snow to play without sinking and falling or its just too bitter cold to spend much time outside. This year I came up with a fun idea for the kids – Indoor Winter Water Play and Experiment with Snow.

This was fun and educational as the kids got to make observations, make hypothesizes and guess what would happen.

Before the kids got home from school I gathered the following materials:

Two large bowls
Measure two cups of snow into each bowl and leave outside until you are ready to start your experiment
An old towel
Items for guessing will it float or sink (I used coins, balls, rocks, straws, lego men, magnets, outlet covers, bracelets, and more) – you should try to have some things that will float and sink
Measuring cup to measure two cups of cold water and two cups of hot water
Timer (I used my cellphone)

When the kids got home I got the bowls in from outside and asked them if they thought hot water would melt snow faster or if cold water would. Boo guessed hot water and Buddy guessed cold. They each poured two cups of water on their snow at the same time and I set the timer to see how long the snow would take to melt.

While the snow was melting they felt the water and observed that the hot water was now cold and that the cold water was even colder! The snow in the hot water melted completely in just over 4 minutes. After that we add some hot water to the bowl with cold water to watch the snow melt.

Next on a piece of paper I made a simple graph with a column for the item we were testing to see if it would float or sink, and a column for each kids guess. I also noted if the item did in fact float or sink. It was fun to hear the kids guesses and see their reactions if the item did opposite of what they thought.

After we finished our experiment the kids had free play with the items we tested and the water bowls. They had a great time and didn’t even realize it was an educational activity. It was a fun way to play with snow without being outside. Have you ever done any indoor play with snow? If so let me know – we are always looking for new ideas.