Creating with permanent marker and ice paint is lots of fun – the process and the results are all sorts of cool!
Fun with Ice Painting
When Immy came to me recently with an idea for an art project, I was surprised to hear that she wanted to make some ice paints as it is not something we have created with since she was a very young toddler. The following was all at her suggestion, my only input was providing a pipette to fill the ice tray with – nothing like including a little extra fine motor element to the experience!
We used liquid food colouring to make our ice paint. You will want to add quite a lot to make nice, strong paint colours.
Immy must have checked the freezer 100 times before the ice was frozen and ready to use. We popped the paints out onto some paper towel to help absorb any excess liquid as the ice melted. This activity did get quite messy so be sure to cover your work space and pop an apron on your child. Our fingers were stained but the colour washed off with regular hand washing within 24 hours.
Immy decided that she first wanted to draw pictures with black, permanent marker pen. She told me that she was drawing cold things since she would be painting them with ice. First up was a snowman and then a Christmas tree, “Because it’s cold in some countries at Christmastime,” (it is most certainly not cold at Christmas here in Western Australia!)
Then it was onto ice painting. The colours were deliciously vibrant and Immy had a fabulous time switching from one to the other, testing them all out.
I think she found them more difficult to manage with any real control and so she soon discarded the idea of ‘colouring in’ the elements of her picture in favour of big blocks of vibrant colour.
Once her drawings had been adorned Immy asked for some more paper to paint on.
She was enjoying the experience so much that she filled up whole pages with bright blocks of colour.
All too soon the ice had melted and the wonderfully colourful, messy, cold art making spectacular came to an end….
…but not quite as I can see wonderful potential for further art experiences in these brightly coloured papers!
Have you tried ice painting?
Check out these other fun painting and paint printing projects;
For even more creative fun for kids, check out my book, Time to Create… 
Christie Burnett is a teacher, presenter, writer and the mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to access engaging, high quality learning ideas.
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