January 11th ~ How do you melt an ice cube?

So, I am teaching my class about winter, ice, solids, and liquids.  After reading The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats to the class, we talked about why the snow ball that Peter put in his pocket melted once Peter went into his warm apartment.  To demonstrate that snow and ice are a solid that comes from a liquid, we played "Melt-the-Ice-Cube" game.  To play this game, the students have to roll a die and do a certain task to an ice cube in order to see which one of those things melts the ice cube the fastest.  What fun!!  My students LOVED this activity!  The above picture is one of the student's ice cubes with salt on it.

If you rolled a 1, you had to hold your ice cube for 10 seconds. If you rolled a 2, you had to drop your ice cube down your shirt. If you rolled a 3, you had to blow on the ice cube for 10 seconds.  If you rolled a 4, you had to drop the ice cube on the table.  If you rolled a 5, you had to shake 10 shakes of salt on the ice cube.  If you rolled a 6, you had to float your ice cube in water.  We played the game for about 15 minutes. Which one of those 6 ways do you think makes the ice cube melt the fastest??