Kick the Can Ice Cream Fun!

 



Hey Science Friends,

I had a special request for this activity re post and I was happy to write about it considering that we just finished our unit on Force and Motion. One of my favorite culminating activities for this unit has been Kick the Can! The Kick the Can activity is the perfect activity to review Force and Motion and Position and Location terms with developing young scientists. All of the items needed for this activity can be found at any local store.

I used the recipe above for one batch of ice cream. I added extract to flavor the ice cream and when we were finished we added candies on top. The candy and extract are optional. As a special note... I have made this recipe several times with Kinder kids but just simply due to time and everything else in the classroom I also make a few batches of ice cream in a small ice cream maker to take to class. The only reason I have done this is because one or two batches of ice cream in the cans is just not enough ice cream for the entire class. I have found that making one batch and tasting it as soon as it is ready works great but the ice cream is soooo good we always want a little more. That is the only reason I make a little ahead of time. The science in this activity is the activity itself and the children need to be involved in it.

 

 

After the cans were prepared we were able to keep the cans moving while using Positional terms such as above, below, behind, in front of, beside, inside, outside, between, right and left. To review Paths of Motion we kept our cans moving in a straight line, zigzag, up and down, back and forth, round and round and fast and slow. We had such a good time with this! This would also be a perfect activity to discuss freezing and melting because the can does get cold and forms crystals that are wonderful for investigating with magnifying glasses! Oh and think of the notebooking...

 

 

This is what the mixture will look like as it freezes. Your freezing time will vary based on your ice and rock salt mixture. This is one reason why I suggest a batch or two made ahead of time because you may need to freeze this soft serve mixture in the freezer and who wants to wait to taste it after all that work? Another tip... get your cream and milk as cold as possible before you start. I added mine to the freezer before we used them.

And here was our Kick the Can ice cream. It was soooo good and now you know why we wanted more! I hope you and your class have fun with this just like we did. And if you are looking for more fun with Force and Motion...

Have fun investigating Science friends!

 



Force, Motion and Energy Oh My!

Hello Science Friends, 

So much has been cooking in our Kindergarten Science Lab! We had so much fun today that we had to share this with you. We played Kick the can and made some ice cream today and we learned a lot along the way. 

We started with our basic ice cream ingredients that were well chilled. 

We set up our equipment. 

In goes the milk.

In goes the cream and then the sugar. And our secret mystery ingredient. 

In goes the ice and rock salt in layers. Be sure to tape your lid shut! Be sure and tape both of them! 

Get your 20 favorite Kinder friends, turn on some music and pass the can. We just were not brave enough to kick it! 

Figure out different ways we can keep the can moving! 

We noticed some changes... Our can is getting colder actually very cold to the touch and frost is starting to develop on the can. We also notice when we keep the can moving the frost is not seen and the can is wet. We also notice the mixture inside the can feels different when it moves and the ice feels different too! 

We noticed that it was getting difficult to push the can and get it across our circle. We decided to try the table instead. We noticed that the can rolled better on the surface of the table. Hmmm, could that be some friction? 

We had to take a peak and see if all this shake, rattle and roll was really working after ten minutes. We discovered it really was working but we still had more work to do. 

So, did you believe we could pull this off? We had no doubts we could do it. So what did we learn? 

This was one part of our Investigation of Force, Motion and Energy. Children learned that energy, force and motion are related and part of our everyday life. Children observed and described the ways the can could and could not move such as: 

Straight

Zig Zag

Up

Down 

Back and Forth

Round and Round

Fast 

Slow

We observed starting and ending positions with our can. We noticed that the movement changed as the ice cream changed inside our can. We noticed that different surfaces allowed us to move the can differently. We observed ways our can could move and we used position and location terms to describe our object's movement. We  learned we can Notebook about our investigations that we have explored with our senses. And we have learned that we can communicate just like real scientists. And we have learned that sometimes our investigations lead to more questions and we are HUNGRY for those answers which leads us to more investigations! I hope you join us for more fun as we investigate, discover and explore in Kindergarten.