Ice Painting!

Ice Painting is a fun way to experience different textures, color mixing, fine motor practice, and more!!

When I learned about the Painting Challenge at Messy Little Monsters, I was thrilled to join in.  For 35 days, Louise is challenging parents and teachers to paint with their kiddos.  The challenge is to focus on the experience and not worry about making a perfect final product.  I love this philosophy when making art with young children.  There are SO many different ways you can experience painting, and I am thrilled to bring you ice painting today!!

Even ice painting can be done in a variety of ways!  To do it like us, you will need these

Simple Supplies:

* paint
* ice trays (or other molds)
* craft sticks
* water
* paper

Easy How-To:

1.  To prepare your ice paints, put a squirt of paint in the bottom of each ice tray pocket.  I like to use primary colors because they let your kiddos experiment with color mixing while they paint.  You can use regular rectangle shaped ice trays.  We might have used Halloween-themed ice trays because they have been used for other non-food projects already!

Add water to each pocket.

Stir the water and paint together, and place it in the freezer.  After about 1.5 - 2 hours, pull the tray out and place a craft stick in each pocket.  This is definitely optional, but it does make it easier for kiddos to play with the paint when it is done.  Return the tray to the freezer, and let it harden completely.  A few hours should be plenty, but I waited over night because it worked for my schedule.

2.   Pop your ice paints out of the ice trays and give them to your kiddos with some paper.  If they stick, just run warm water over the back of the tray.  This is a wonderful outdoor project in warm weather, but we have had a cold weather week.  So, we just covered the table with butcher paper, and let the kids get busy!  It ended up being the perfect indoor activity too...

They had a fantastic time!

Check out the fine motor exercise!

Color Mixing!

Even with the open-ended nature of the project, we still got a butterfly...

and a comet...

...and a few other "concrete" pictures!  The kids had a great time, and when we were done, we just rolled up the butcher paper and threw the mess away!

Have you ever painted with ice?

This post is part of the Painting Challenge at Messy Little Monsters!  Be sure to stop by and see what other painting ideas you like!

I may share at any of these parties!



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