Making Ice Grow

For all those Frozen fans and those who love to simply experiment here’s an interesting activity to do. We will be making our ice grow here. Grow what, ice? How is that possible? Same was my reaction and believe me even after having done it in front of my eyes I couldn’t believe it. So basically, we will be teaching these little geniuses what crystallisation is all about through this experiment. And I bet kids are going to love this and you will have to repeat this too. So better have a crate of icy cool water and a large tub to collect all the overflows. Be ready to get that chill run down your spine!

Materials Needed:

3-4 plastic water bottles
Water
Ice
Freezer
Bowl

What to do:

Fill in the bottles with water and place them in the freezer.
It's better you place them in a sleeping position i.e., horizontally.
Let it remain inside for about 2 hours 30-45 minutes.
Now here you need some pre-experiment to be done. You need the water that is in liquid state and that can be poured but at the same time it should be really cold to the extent that even a small tap on the bottle makes it to freeze into ice. This is the kind of water that is needed to conduct this experiment.
So, for this you need to check the water by removing it from the freezer say after 2 hours and 30 minutes. Repeat this activity every 3 minutes. Tap the bottle to find out the correct time you may require to get the correct stage of water.
When you are done with this, place few ice cubes in a bowl.
Now open the bottle of water gently without shaking or moving it much and start to pour the water onto the ice. You and your kids will simply not believe your eyes!
You get ice built up on the bowl as you pour water.

Hints and Tips:

You need to work on finding the timing for getting the right temperature of the water. Ideally, it takes around 2 hours and 45 minutes but it varies from one freezer to the other.
You really need to be very careful while pouring the water as the slightest movement may cause the bottle to freeze.
Kids could also try pouring the water. Through this, they will learn to handle things with utmost care.
You can also try this out with some coloured water to give a colourful treat to the little ones. Simply add some liquid watercolour or food colour to the water in the bottle.
You could try building various items based on your imagination. Simply build a tower, a castle or even a pyramid by placing 3 bowls of ice next to each other in a triangular shape.
These structures won’t fall off till you pour the chilled water onto them. With this magic trick, you can have a game as to whose castle is the tallest.