Ice Cream Time!

Ha!  I know what you must be thinking: ice cream in negative degree weather?!  Is Mrs. Feldkamp crazy?!  Nope, not yet. ;)

I am a couple of weeks behind in getting this post up.  During "Wacky Wednesday" of Catholic Schools Week, the weather was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  It was 65 degrees -- in February.  Wow!  I decided it was the perfect opportunity to make ice cream, in coffee cans, and explore physical changes and chemical changes.  We partnered with the other second grade class to conduct this experiment.

We mixed half & half, sugar, and vanilla extract for our ice cream mix.  This all went inside a small coffee can.  We nestled our ice cream can inside a large 3 pound can.  The ice cream can was surrounded with ice and rock salt.  Then our second graders worked their magic: they partnered up and rolled the three cans for 10 minutes.  We had ice cream!

Back in the day when there were metal coffee cans, the ice cream did get harder.  Plastic does not work the same.  We discussed the different properties of metal and plastic.  Metal is a conductor and does an excellent job of getting colder than plastic.  This means harder ice cream!  No one was disappointed though, as the taste was approved by all.