I Week- Ice Cube Painting

I thought this was pretty creative, painting with ice cubes. It comes out looking like water colors but it's more fun to get something more creative than just giving the kids paint and brushes going.

What you'll need:

• An ice cube tray
• Water
• A freezer
• Food coloring
• Popsicle sticks (or toothpicks but they can be a little dangerous for young children)
• Tape (or plastic wrap)
• Construction paper

What to do:

1. Fill the ice cube tray with water.*
2. Add one drop of food coloring per ice cube. I decided to do each color more than once in case anything happens to one, it melts too much or falls off the stick.**
3. Cover the ice cube tray with tape or plastic wrap. I chose to use tape because that was what I had available to me off hand and it is sturdy. I just cut slits into the tape over each cube.
4. Insert a popsicle stick into each cube.
5. Place the tray in the freezer to form ice cubes.
6. Remove the tray a few minutes before you're ready to use them. The ice cubes need to be slightly melted for this to work.
7. Remove one cube at a time and smear it on the paper as if painting with brush. Keep in mind that the color isn't going to come from the cube itself, it acts as a brush for the colored melted puddle of water each cube will form so if it becomes hard to see just dip it back into the cube spot it came from.
8. If the cubes become too melted to the point that the stick is touching the paper more than the ice cube, stick them back in the freezer and revisit the activity in a few minutes. The puddle will  become part of the ice cube again.

The finished product:

*Note you don't want to fill them to the point where the ice cubes will connect when they freeze. The colors will run together when you add the food coloring.

**Note the food coloring crawls up the the edges of the cube area to anywhere there's water. It will get a little messy and I learned the hard way that food coloring stains more than markers almost.