Taste safe ice painting is a fun art idea for babies, toddlers and preschoolers that older kids will love too! It's process driven and a great way of exploring colours. Little children will love the sensory experience of touching and investigating freezing and melting ice as part of a Winter project or outside in the Summer. What a great way of introducing science in the early years!
Are looking for more easy art ideas? Take a look at our foil painting, no mess canvas art and toilet roll shape printing.
If you are doing this activity as part of a Winter project do take a look at our collection of snow and ice-themed activities, there is something on the list for everyone to enjoy! We also have a list of suggested Winter books to read alongside the activities.
Ice painting is a classic painting idea loved by young children. You will probably be tempted to have a go yourself too! Experiment with different colours and see what watery patterns you can create!
Harry (aged 3) loved using our bright primary-coloured ice paints, but I was a bit worried about Daisy (6 months) using them as they were made from paint (and everything goes in her mouth). These taste-safe ice paints are made using food colouring instead. I love the watery effect and I didn't have to worry about them being unsafe for Daisy.
You might also enjoy painting on ice.
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE A VIDEO OF THE ACTIVITY IN ACTION
Ice painting - a fun painting idea for toddlers
Ice painting - supplies:
- Small pots (we used yoghurt pots)
- Food colouring (we used wilton gel food colouring)
- Water
- Craft sticks
- Card or paper
Taste Safe Ice Painting - Directions
To make taste safe ice paint begin by filling small pots (for example little yoghurt pots) with water. Mix a tiny bit of food colouring into the pots of water. Put a craft stick into each pot and then put the pots into the freezer. The ice paints will take a couple of hours to freeze.
Once the ice has frozen take the ice paints out of the pots and you are ready to get painting.
TIP: If you are struggling to get the ice paint sticks out of the pots run the pots under warm water.
TIP: If you are struggling to get the ice paint sticks out of the pots run the pots under warm water.
I would recommend painting on card or thick paper. Hand the ice paint sticks to your child and let them have fun exploring the different painty effects that they can create. As these paints are made from just water and colouring you don't have to worry about babies and toddlers putting them into their mouths (they do however slightly colour the skin)
The ice paints made some really effective watery patterns.
Artwork created by Daisy: 6 months
It would be fun to experiment with different colours. You could select a couple of colours for your child to use or give them a whole rainbow of colours (like we did with our rainbow ice activity). I always like selecting 2 or 3 colours that I think work well together.
Older children could use these ice painting sticks to learn about colour mixing. Just make ice paint sticks in red, yellow and blue and see what secondary colours they can mix up.
If your child enjoyed this ice painting activity they might also like to do a bit of ice play or create Winter patterns on foil. Sticking with the Winter theme we also have some arctic animal colouring pages for you to download.
DAISY - AGE 2
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I love that the baby got to paint! May just have to try something similar with my little guy - I'm sure quite a bit of face painting will be involved ;)
ReplyDeleteAs for the number of colors to work with, I still often use just two or three colors even with my 4 year old, and it works really well. I love the blue and purple you used here - we recently made very pretty coffee filter hearts with those same colors.
Did you just use paper to paint on?
ReplyDeleteI did but card is better if you want to keep their artwork. The paper gets a bit soggy
DeleteHey! I love this idea as a sensory art work mashup! I want to try it in my toddler classroom I have just one question, did the dye stain your babies hands or clothes?
ReplyDeleteIt does, yes, so you will need old clothes/ aprons. You can get around the problem by using washable paints like we did here http://www.messylittlemonster.com/2015/01/ice-painting-easy-art-techniques-for.html
DeleteWhat if you made these with koolaid and ice trays? Where they painted with the cube of ice popsicled with a stick? They could eat them as they painted? Would that work?
ReplyDelete