Ice Man

Ages: 5-11
Contributor:
Sam Collins

A fascinating film showing how an ice sculpture is made and how people react to it.

Watch this video with your children, and then try some of our teaching and activity ideas below.

Teaching Ideas and Resources:

Show children the opening shot of the video (before you press play). What do they think it’s going to be about? What makes them say that?
Write a set of instructions (including safety instructions!) on how to make an ice sculpture.
Write an interview with the sculptor. What questions would you ask him?
Write a poem describing the ice sculpture.
Write a news report about the sculpture.
Collect “cold” adjectives to describe the sculpture.

Investigate changing states of water using this lesson plan from the BBC.
A typical ice sculpture will last for about 4-6 hours indoors before it melts. Investigate how long it takes different volumes of ice to melt. How will you ensure it is a fair test?

Visit the ice sculptor’s company page and look at some of the amazing ice sculptures they have made. Design your own ice sculpture.
Design and build an ice sculpture using ice cubes. Don’t forget to photograph or video it before it melts!
Experiment with freezing water in different containers to create different shapes of ice.
Investigate other unusual materials for sculpture, for example, Robert Bradford makes sculptures from old plastic toys. What else could you use?

Plan a holiday to an ice hotel. How would you get there? What might you do while you were there?

Make a timeline of the history of ice sculpture. Use our resource as a starting point.