Learning Cold Facts of Math and Science

Using ice blocks dyed with food coloring, preschool students at Hart Street Elementary School on Thursday created ice castles, and in turn got a lesson in math, science and teamwork.

The premise was simple: Place a frozen block on the table, sprinkle salt on top and add another block to the pile. The result was several towers of jumbo ice cubes, some six blocks high.

“They were supposed to be castles, but this is their interpretation,” said teacher Cheri Mahlknecht, as her numb hands added yet another frozen block to a tower.

Children took turns sprinkling the salt and deciding where the next block should go. Rodrigo Padilla, 5, did such a good job he earned the nickname of “Salt Man.”

The ice blocks were made the night before at home by the children. There were discs, cylinders, flat squares and frozen rings.

Never missing an opportunity to teach, Mahlknecht reviewed the different shapes with the children and had them count to 10 while she applied pressure to each newly stacked block so it would stay in place.

“This was a fun thing,” Mahlknecht said. “They got to see how a liquid can turn into a solid and back to a liquid again.”