Ice painting is a fun art activity that came about after our frozen vinegar hearts science exploration. Heart-shaped ice would be great for Valentine’s Day, but you could use this activity any time of the year.
Ice Painting
I used heart-shaped silicon molds to create our ice hearts. {You could use ice cube trays or any freezer-safe container.}
Prepare for ice painting in 3 easy steps:
- Fill the molds with water.
- Add a drop or two of food coloring. {I added 2 drops in each of my hearts. To mix colors, I added one drop of each color. For example, to make purple, I added one drop of blue food coloring and one drop of red food coloring.}
- Place the molds in the freezer and allow water to freeze.
I put Aiden in a paint shirt since we were using food coloring. Food coloring is water soluble and eventually washes off your hands without too much effort. {What doesn’t come off at first should easily wash away after a bath.} I’m not sure how easily food coloring washes out of clothes – I haven’t tried it. {I don’t think Aiden got any food coloring on his clothes this day anyway – just his hands.}
Aiden was immediately drawn to the colorful ice. Although he thought we were going to repeat the fun we had the first time he explored frozen hearts. That time we had were working on science learning. This time we were just focusing on art and play.
I presented Aiden with a piece of white paper. He lined up the ice hearts and started moving them around the paper.
I told him he could paint the paper with hearts. He requested a paint brush because he wanted to paint the hearts.
After a few minutes of painting the ice, he went back to moving the hearts around the paper. He noticed the ice melted and left colorful marks on the paper.
He asked to place the ice in water. The ice painting turned into ice play at this point. He watch the heart-shaped ice melt and saw their colors mix.
This was a fun sensory activity and different way to paint for us. Have you ever tried ice painting?
More Valentine’s Day Ideas
- Frozen vinegar hearts are a great science idea perfect for Valentine’s Day.
- Make a simple heart craft and turn it into a learning activity.
- Look through our past Valentine’s Day ideas here.
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Just visiting from Tuesday Tots. I love all the ways your son explored the ice paints!
Katie @ Gift of Curiosity recently posted..5 ways to make heart stamps
Thanks, Katie!
The marks the ice left behind remind me of goldfish swimming in a pond. This looks like fun. This reminds me of an experiment we did last year with colorful fish-shaped ice cubes when we were investigating water temperature, and timed them thawing in warm, hot, and cold water, then after that we melted different colors together to see what color they made.
Jessica recently posted..Valentine Counting with Thomas and Percy
Oh, I guess it does look like fish. How cool! Love the experiment, and the fish shapes make it extra fun. We haven’t done a simple ice experiment yet… maybe one day.
This is such a cute and creative idea! Makes for some colorful and cold hands! He did a great job on the art!
DeDe@DesignedDecor recently posted..Talkin About Thursday Link Party #7
Thanks DeDe! Process based art is my favorite kind. It usually ends up as an abstract masterpiece.
I love this idea. I was looking for fun things to do with my kiddos next week and this is the type of stuff I was looking for.
Scary recently posted..Waves of Summer {Signature Collection}
Yay, glad I could help out!
I love this idea – but think we will wait till Summer to give it a try it’s now too warm for ice just here.
Thank you for linking up to Tuesday Tots and letting you know that I will be featuring this over on Rainy Day Mum this week.
Cerys @ Rainy Day Mum recently posted..The Foot Book Dr Seuss Virtual Book Club for Kids
Thanks for the feature, Cery! I think it would be a great outside idea for the summer.
Thanks for linking up to Tuesday Tots. I too have featured this activity today! haha You’re welcome to see it here and grab a Tuesday Tots feature button if you like http://www.learnwithplayathome.com/2013/02/6-play-learn-activities-for-toddlers.html. Hope you link up again this week
Debs recently posted..6 Play & Learn Activities for Toddlers
Thanks so much, Debs!