Painting with Ice

Summer is just around the corner here and summer vacation has already arrived for some of our school aged friends. Here is one great way to continue some science learning and stay cool. Painting with ice!

Usually we only think about ice in the winter, but it makes for a fun summer activity too.

I mixed regular tempera paint with water so it was about equal parts water and paint. I used small plastic cups and froze them for about 30 minutes so they were slushy but not solid. I stuck the sticks in - some I had to prop up with other sticks to get them reasonably straight.

Then I waited. That was the hardest part. But to make them solid, I waited overnight.

Then I popped the plastic cup in warm water to unfreeze it just a tiny bit and then we painted. As you can tell, we only use primary colors and as the paint defrosted during use, we created secondary colors.