25 Feb How to Make Ice Crystals with the Kids

Winter has finally hit us in Texas!  Temperatures had been quite warm here, rarely dipping into “coat weather.”  Contrary to all logic, I actually found myself complaining that we hadn’t even had a winter yet!  I mean, is that a PROBLEM?!  I typically hate winter, but when I say that, I’m really referring to the unending winters of my younger days in Canada.  Winter here in Texas seems to consist of a day or two of ice and if we have any luck, some snow – or even better, sticky snow!

The cold weather came at the perfect time for us because we were just finishing studying the book Very Last First Time for our Five in a Row curriculum.  We had planned on doing a couple of experiments for the science portion and making ice crystals with the kids seemed irresistible!

The initial part of this project is very simple.  We let it sit overnight for better results.

Materials Needed:

• Pipe cleaners
• A cup or bowl wide and deep enough that the pipe cleaner will not touch a surface
• Borax (I find this in the laundry section of the grocery store)
• Boiling water
• A pencil
• Some string / thread

How to Make Ice Crystals

I began by boiling some water on the stove.  While the water came to a boil, we took the pipe cleaners and shaped them into snowflakes.  You could do any shape you like, but we were in the mood for snow and ice!  Once the pipe cleaners were shaped, I tied one end of string around the snowflake and the other end around a pencil.  This is to suspend the snowflake in the mug.  Be sure to measure so that the pipe cleaner does not touch any part of the cup.

I had Clark and Luci both scoop 3 tablespoons of Borax into their mugs, then I poured the boiling water in.  They both stirred very carefully until the Borax was completely dissolved.  Clark compared this to our Super Simple Salt Water Evaporation Experiment.  Both the salt and the Borax dissolved in the water, leaving it clear.

Then we suspended our pipe cleaner snowflakes over the mug (yes, I had to make one too!), using the pencil and string.  We placed the mugs on the counter to sit overnight.

Clark and Luci were very excited to see the result of their experiment in the morning.  We found that the Borax had crystallized around our pipe cleaners, making them look like beautiful, colored ice crystals!

We could also see that the Borax had crystallized in the bottom of the mugs as well.  This was awesome because it reinforced our recent salt water experiment again.

Beautiful Snowflakes!

The snowflakes were beautiful, sparkling in the light and very, very hard.  The Borax had created many different sizes and shapes of crystals, so we compared them all.  Aren’t they gorgeous?  Clark thought we should make them next Christmas for the Christmas tree.  Not a bad idea!

If you would like a more detailed version of this experiment, we got our information from Steve Spangler’s Science experiment.  He goes in to a little more detail and discusses some very basic science behind it.

Check out Five in a Row:  Very Last First Time for more experiments and activities!