Ice Painting STEAM Activity (sitting babies & older)

Looking for a fun new art activity to beat the summer heat and allows for a mix of painting on new surfaces? Painting on ice is a simple project that includes art and science.

Ages: Sitting babies and older

What you need:

1. Molds to freeze your water in. I used 2 cake molds and a pie pan. You can also use ice cube trays, cupcake trays, bowls etc.

2. Water

3. Paint (For my little guy, I used food coloring, because he is still very oral)

4. Paintbrushes

5. A tray or cookie sheet to place the ice molds on

Directions:

1. Fill up the molds with water and place them in the freezer over-night. Make sure to include your child in this process. Ask them what they think will happen to the water when they put it in the freezer. You can let an older child know that this guess is called a hypothesis. Talk about how the liquid water turned into a solid ice by putting in the cold, cold freezer.

2. Set your child up outside, with their paint, paintbrushes, and ice molds on a tray.

3. You can also include a cup of warm water as an additional element to add on the ice

Talk to your child during the activity. Ask them what is happening to the paint on the ice? What is happening to the ice while you paint?

For an older baby or a younger toddler, I would use a larger paint brush, a cup of warm water and small amounts of food coloring to paint with. Allow them to experiment with different temperatures and textures. For this age group, stick with larger ice molds to avoid choking on smaller ice cubes.