We LOVE ice cream! It’s a summertime favorite around here. As we continue to fill our days with outdoor summer fun, it’s nice to have some indoor fun too. Especially if it’s a rainy day, or week like we’ve had lately! Art projects are one of our favorite ways to spend our time inside. And we really enjoy art that goes beyond paintbrushes! As an expression of our love for ice cream, we recently explored painting with sponges and pom poms to create some ice cream cone sponge art. In the past we have found that painting with pom poms and sponges has produced some really unique art. It allows for children to take the reins on their creativity and also adds interesting texture. This sponge painted ice cream cone summer art project will do just that and more, as you can add in some visual discrimination by having artists order their cones by size.
Sponge Painted Ice Cream Cone Summer Art Project
FIND ALL OF OUR ICE CREAM ACTIVITIES IN OUR PRINTABLE LESSON PLANS
FOR HOME PRESCHOOL AND PRESCHOOL CLASSROOMS.
Materials
- dish sponges cut to size
- paint
- construction paper
- pom poms
- clothespins
Getting Started
To begin your ice cream cone sponge art, introduce the materials and discuss how each item may be used to create an ice cream cone. Allow children to choose their “flavors” of ice cream as paint colors are selected and mixed if necessary. We chose to create vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice cream. Yum!
Before any painting begins, you may also want to talk about the shapes the materials will imprint and practice ordering by size. Little artists can arrange the sponges from smallest to largest or vice versa.
Paint!
If you’ll be ordering your cones by size, arrange the sponges just how you want them. Carefully dip the triangular cones into the paint and stamp them across your paper. We recommend having an extra paper plate or space for patting off any excess paint.
Now it’s time to add your ice cream! Using the pom pom paintbrushes, dip into the “flavor” of your choice.
I really liked watching one of our artists’ strategy of framing the height of her cone by carefully dabbing each pom pom.
Continue pom pom painting until all of your flavors have been created. Feel free to add sprinkles, chocolate chips, or even a cherry on top!
You can even add in some sprinkles if you’d like! We chose to use sparkly sequins for ours.
For older children, you may extend this activity by having them complete a writing response to their art or by painting a specific number of scoops on their ice cream cones.
When you’re done set up this fun ice cream sundae sensory bin or make a batch of ice cream sundae slime for even more playtime!
GET A FULL WEEK OF ICE CREAM THEME LEARNING AND PLAY
Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.
This set includes active hands-on learning ideas and the following printables:
1) Count the Sprinkles Activity Mats (4 color, 4 black and white)
2) Ice Cream Number Cards (1-40)
3) Favorite Ice Cream Whole Group Survey
4) Favorite Ice Cream Individual Tally Sheets
5) Ice Cream in a Bag Recipe
6) Hot and Cold Concept Sorting Mats and Game Pieces (full color and black and white versions)
7) Ice Cream Dice Game (full color and black and white versions)
8) Ice Cream Theme Word Cards
9) Ice Cream Cone Color Sorting Mats
10) Initial Sound Ice Cream Cone Building Activity (for sounds /c/, /m/ and /r/)
11) Uppercase and Lowercase Ice Cream and Ice Cream Cone Matching Game
12) Ice Cream Cone Shape Matching Game
GET YOUR LESSON PLANS
Home Preschool Ice Cream Theme Lesson Plans
Preschool Classroom Ice Cream Theme Lesson Plans
All of our products are also available on Teachers Pay Teachers if you prefer to shop there.
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