# Icy Fruit Painting
> Freeze unsweetened Kool-Aid in popsicle molds, then let a toddler paint big printed fruit pictures outdoors with the melting ice. It doubles as a color-and-fruit matching game.
- URL: https://www.funlittles.com/toddler-activities-summer-art-activity/
- Ages: 1–4 yrs · Difficulty: easy · Mess: medium
- Time: prep 20 min, activity 20 min
- Works for: one-on-one, small group · one batch serves about 1 kids
- Skills: sensory-exploration, color-recognition, matching, fine-motor, vocabulary
- Cautions: food-dye, ingestion-risk

## Materials (one batch)
- Unsweetened Kool-Aid drink mix, 5 flavors
- Water (household)
- 5 piece Popsicle molds
- 5 sheet Thick paper with big printed fruit outlines
- 1 piece Printer (household)
- 1 piece Plastic tray and old beach towel (optional) (household)
- 1 piece Bowl or plate for the popsicles (optional) (household)

## Safety
- Toddlers will lick the ice. TurkeyMom's toddler did. Treat it as paint, not a snack, and supervise the whole time.
- Unsweetened Kool-Aid is very sour and contains dyes that stain hands, clothes and towels. Paint outdoors in play clothes.
- The ice is cold. Let little hands take breaks and hold the mold handle or top instead.
- Outdoors on a hot day, use shade, sun protection and drinking water as usual.

## Before you start
- Mix each Kool-Aid flavor with water (no sugar), pour into popsicle molds and freeze. Remember to make the colored ice ahead!
- Print big pictures of the matching fruits (orange, strawberry, grape, lemon, cherry) on thick paper.

## Steps
1. Lay the fruit pictures out on a tray or towel outdoors.
2. Put the popsicle paints in a bowl next to the pictures.
3. Pick out a popsicle paint and call out its color.
4. Look at the 5 fruits and guess which one is that color. Yellow? Lemon!
5. Paint that fruit with the popsicle.
6. Try holding the ice itself, then try holding the top. Each way paints differently.
7. Try to pull the ice out of the mold.
8. Set the painted fruits out to dry.

## Tips
- Please use a thick paper if you want to save the work. We used regular paper since we weren't planning on saving it, and it dried stiff.
- A thick popsicle mold is easier for little hands to grip. Add a slightly thinner one for variety.
- Of course she licked them! Since I did not add any sugar, the Kool-Aid was way too sour.
- Expect the colors to get mixed up. You really think a toddler is going to paint only red on strawberries?
- It's a sensory activity too, stimulating vision, smell and, of course the big one, taste.

## The original post by TurkeyMom (2013)

Fun outdoor *ice activity* for the summer. We are finding ourselves doing more kids activities **[outdoors](https://www.funlittles.com/outdoor-activities-spa-pretend-play/)** or in our **[backyard](https://www.funlittles.com/art-activity-throw-ball-painting/)**. It's warm and it is great to be out of the house. With my 4 year old away at school, it was a great day to have some one on one with my toddler in our backyard. Beat the heat, get out doors, create an **ice activity** and paint. Fun combination! This ice activity needed *some* planning. Planning as in " remember to make colored ice" Ha!

 I froze a 5 flavors of Kool-Aid in our Popsicle molds. Orange, Strawberry, Grape, Lemon and Cherry. I also printed out big images of the respective fruits on paper. Note: Please use a thick paper if you are planning on doing this. We used regular paper since we were not planning on saving it. This art activity was purely for painting with fruity popsicles. I was really happy that this simple summer ice activity turned out to be a partial learning activity as well. I used 2 kinds of Popsicle molds- A thick one which is easier to grip.



A slightly thinner for variety.



Then my toddler started painting ( and tasting) away. ***This is how we went about playing*** My toddler picks out a popsicle "paint" and calls out the color. Eg: yellow Then we take a look at the 5 fruits and I have her *try* to match the fruit. "Which fruit do you think is yellow?" "Lemon?" Let's paint the lemon with your yellow popsicle. It was a fun **[sensory activity](https://www.funlittles.com/sensory-activities-fruits-exploration-and-whole-fruit-vs-sliced-fruit/)** as well for my toddler stimulating her vision, smell and of course the big one, taste. Of course she licked them! Since I did not add any sugar the Kool-Aid was way too sour. Here is the sensory activity in pictures.



It was interesting to see the way she chose to paint. Here she is painting a lemon holding the ice itself.



Here she chose to hold the top. Every one of these different methods seem to make her try a different way to paint.



She also tried to remove the ice off the mold.



It was a fun toddler sensory activity for her. We set out our fruits to dry. Here are all our fruits colored. We mixed up the flavors and fruits on many pictures.. You really think a toddler was going to paint only red on strawberries? Like I said, if you want to save the work use thicker paper. Our paper did dry stiff.

 This ice fruit painting summer sensory activity was an easy to set up and perfect for a toddler on a hot summer day.

***Thanks for reading***

[](https://www.funlittles.com/category/pre-schooler/) [](https://www.funlittles.com/category/for-the-baby/)