A Fun and Easy Preschool Activity with Colors

Incorporating fun sensory activities with the preschool set works with your child's natural curiosity to learn about his or her environment through all of the senses. Ice painting is a fun and easy art activity that uses the senses of touch, taste, smell, and sight to learn about colors. Not only do preschoolers enjoy creating art, they also enjoy the opportunity to experiment with their other senses. This is an ideal preschool activity for the home, classroom, homeschool group, or party environment.

What you will need for ice painting

Ice painting only requires a little bit of preparation. You will need several ice trays, enough for each preschooler to have at least four ice cubes each. You will need to buy fruit punch mixes in a variety of colors and flavors. Red, blue, dark pink, purple, and green work very well for this fun activity. Check for any allergies to food coloring, sugar, or other dietary restrictions before you purchase the fruit punch.

You will also need paper towels for cleaning up, wipes for sticky little hands, and an optional plastic tablecloth for the art area. Heavy watercolor paper or thick white card stock paper are best for this art project. You can experiment with different types of paper.

Mixing the ice

Mix enough water into the fruit punch mixes to keep the colors dark. You do not want to add too much water, otherwise the colors will not show up on the art paper. Begin filling ice trays with the different punch mixes. Let the ice trays freeze overnight.

Early childhood ice painting

Cover the table with a plastic tablecloth. Have paper towels and wipes handy for easy mess cleanup. Give each child one ice cube of each color and a heavy piece of art paper and let them swirl the cubes onto the paper. The colorful ice will leave behind beautiful streaks of colors across the white paper.

Depending on the age of your preschool class, you can decide to give them directions on what to draw. For example, you can direct the children to draw their favorite shape, a rainbow, or an animal.

Painting with ice allows your preschoolers to explore several senses. The children feel the ice cold and hard in their hands and discover how the heat of their hands makes the ice turn to water. Your preschoolers can taste and even smell the different flavors of the ice cubes and see how the cubes leave behind beautiful colors on the white paper.

After you finish ice painting, let the art dry and clean up sticky hands and faces. Display the art up in your classroom or let the preschoolers take the art home.