They moved the ice from one bowl to another with a ladle, one piece at a time, and used a hand when the ladle would not do it.
“It's cold.”
“It's slippery.”
Water started collecting in the bottom of the bowl. They tipped it to look, and scooped again.
Then some of it came crushed small, small enough to go in a mouth.
“It's like a sweet.”
A dinosaur had gone into a paper cup with water the day before, and been left overnight.
An adult showed them the cup and asked how they were going to get him out.
It was going to be wet, so they went two at a time — some outside, some to the bathroom.
“Cold.”
“Cool.”
They held it while it melted and got a finger onto the dinosaur through the water. One child lifted the whole block up over their own head and let go of it.
In the bathroom the tap went on and the ice went under it, and came apart slowly.
Then the dinosaur was out.
“Ah, it's cold.”
They were picking the pieces up by hand to move them onto a plate, so tongs came out. After that the ice went plate to plate in tongs, one piece at a time.
Then some ice came with sea-creature beads frozen inside it — bought at the shop with them the day before.
An adult blew on one, and they blew on theirs. Some rubbed them between two hands instead.
“The shell came out!”
The ice came coloured — red, blue, yellow.
They held it, felt how hard and cold it was, and then dragged it across the paper. It left the colour behind.
Some drew lines with it. Some just pressed a whole palm down on it and stayed there for the cold.
As it went on, the colour came out fainter, and there was water on the paper.
“It melted.”
“There's water.”
They rolled the coloured ice across the paper and watched the line it left behind. Where two colours ran into each other they stopped to look.
“It's like a rainbow road!”
“Like jewels!”
Some of them stacked it instead — squares and circles, balanced one on top of another like blocks. Two round ones went end to end and became a snowman.
Then it started going.
“The square one melted and turned into a triangle!”
“The water mixed and went grey.”
The others had built a house out of white blocks. A child went over, looked inside, and said it was cold in there.
Then they started looking around for something.
“Blanket…”
“You want to put a blanket over the ice house?”
“Blanket please.”
It came, and got spread out. “The blanket is big.” “It's warm.” And they lay down inside the ice house with a friend.
A while later the two of them stood facing the wall of it, holding a toy, and waved their hands.
“Wind!”
“Why does ice melt?”
“Because it's hot.”
“That's right — it melts because the weather is warm.”
“If you do wind it's alright.”
Then, looking at the finished house: “Our house!”
A friend said that when ice melts it turns into water.
“Water… it's see-through.”
There was a frozen lake laid out on the floor with holes in it, and smelt underneath.
They picked their own rods and sat down around the edge.
“I'm going to catch more this time!”
“They're all over here — come this way!”
Then they counted what they had.
“I got four!”
“I got the one that was under the ice!”
After that they started moving the blocks so the fish could travel better, and made the lake bigger.
The milk had been frozen solid. They pressed a spoon down into it — tok, tok — and it came apart into snow. They did it again, and again.
Then the toppings: sweet red beans, and fruit, picked one at a time and spooned on top. They asked what each one was.
“Pineapple. Cherry. Tropical fruit.”
They said the names back, and finished the bowl.
“That looks good.”
Then one spoonful.
“It's good!”
“I want more!”