Glitter Ice Painting: Cool painting ideas for hot summer days!
Glue these paint sticks together to create beautiful designs on a hot summer day. An excellent fun activity to help with motor skills, spatial abilities and just a fun summer art project.
It’s not just for indoors anymore! Because this is a rainbows and kaleidoscopes STEAM activity, it’s a great way to add some fun colors outside too!
Glitter Ice Painting Sticks
You will need:
- Ice cube tray
- Glitter
- Water
- Food colouring
- Lollypops or lollipop picks
- White poster board
Preparation:
Add glitter to each part of the ice cube trays.
To add some color to each section of the trays, add a few drops of food coloring to each section.
Tip: If you pick complementary colors, such as red, green, and blue or orange, you’re less likely to end up having a brown splotch at the end!
Place the tray with water inside the fridge. Make sure not to over fill or your colors may get mixed up.
Put a lolly sticks into each section of the tray (or bowl).
Put the ice cube trays into the refrigerator and let them cool down completely before using them.
If you’re looking for something fun for kids ages 2–5, pair our sensory activity with our “sensory” activity (see below).
Get Creating:
Once the poster has been printed out, cut it into small pieces and then place the pieces on top of the poster.
Put the sticks into the holes to push the blocks around. As they melt, the blocks leave behind beautiful patterns of colour.
Let them play with the ice paint and encourage them to use their imagination when painting.
Keep using the ice sticks until all the ice has melted and there is a cool pattern on your poster board!
If necessary, blot the poster boards with a clean piece of cloth or tissue to absorb any excess water before hanging them up to dry.
Penguin Ice Cube Painting Activity for Kids
We started out with an ice cube tray and some water. Then I got them each a paintbrush and asked them to draw a picture of a penguin. They had a blast doing it and were really proud of their artwork. After they finished painting, I took the paintings outside and let them freeze overnight. In the morning, I took the pictures back inside and put them into the freezer until they turned solid. Once they did, I cut them apart and glued them together to make a big piece of art.
This post includes some links to Amazon. If you click on one of them and buy something, I may receive a small percentage of the purchase price at no extra cost to you. It helps pay for running this site. Thank you so much for supporting me!
Make Your Own Ice Cube Paint
Making your own DIY homemade paper towel rolls is super simple. Just combine some cloth towels and regular household liquid soap into a large bowl. Then add some warm water until the mixture becomes wet enough to be rolled up.
We painted the wall first. I covered one third of the surface with paint. Then we sprinkled water into it. Do not cover it too much because otherwise you’ll have to mix them.
Once the water and the glue are ready, mix them together. Add two penguins into each cube. Put the tray in the freezer and let it set overnight. When the next day comes, the penguins will stick out of the cubes. Use these handles to hold your new paints.
Penguin Ice Cube Painting
Once the ice cream has hardened, the party can start! I left the tray out for a few minutes to make it easier to take off the ice cream cups. The ice cream cups popped right out!
When we first started painting with the ice cubes, we used just a few sheets of paper. But then we went through so much paper that we had to buy an extra box of them. The kids really enjoyed using the ice cubes.
The washable paints I used did have some sparkle. They were so pretty when they dried up. And the penguins made them even more fun to create.
Since we painted outside on the porch, we needed something to keep the penguins’ water from spilling everywhere. So we used some extra cardboard to hold them together. Cleaning was a breeze!
After painting the penguins, I was concerned that they would get stained by the watercolors. So I washed them out immediately afterwards.
The penguins were the main draw this week! I’m currently working on putting them into an ice cube tray. They’ll then be able to save them from the freezer tomorrow with a tool and a hose.
