Ice Painting
A fun sensory and art activity rolled into one!
MATERIALS
Water colors and brush
Ice (I froze them into balls because I already had the mold for it, any shape will work I just suggest a one large piece)
Paper plate or tray to contain the mess
To prep just freeze your water in one large shape. My husband has large round ice molds so we used those but you could freeze some water in a paper bowl and have a nice round flat piece. Lay out water colors and wet brush and put a couple drops of water on each color. You do not need to continue to wet the brush or colors, once the ice begins to melt it will do it for you. NOTE: do not use a water color tray you don't want mixed, its going to be a colorful mess all over the ice AND tray.
This one was a huge hit with Finley. He was cautious at first, content to just push the ice around with his finger and feel the cold. Since this was a sensory experience I let him explore the ice while I set up his paints. This works a million times better with water colors, but we didn't any the day I attempted this, so we used child safe craft paint. It worked, so if that's all you have use it, but it won't work quite as well.
I put each color on the paper plate and went over their names. If you are using a water color tray you can do the same thing just by pointing to the colors in the tray. I took his brush and demonstrated putting the paint on the ice. The ball rolled around the plate a bit but it was good practice on being gentle and working his fine motor skills holding the brush.
Once the ice began to melt the paint started to mix on the plate. He enjoyed painting with the melted ice and wet paint. The craft paint was fun to use but did not stick to the ice well, water colors would dye the ice and create a beautiful effect on the paper plate. We did get to see how some colors mix as well, this could definitely be used to teach color combinations with older children.