Ice Chalk Painting

Master 5 and Miss 3 are currently obsessed with painting so when the summer weather finally hit, I decided it was time to explore ice chalk paint. Ice chalk paint is simply a homemade chalk paint recipe frozen in ice cube trays. The ice chalk then becomes a fantastic messy play, sensory, science experiment and painting material. Best of all, it’s easy and cheap to make!

What You Will Need:

• cornflour (approximately 2 cups)
• food colouring (range of colours)
• water
• small bowl
• ice cube trays / mini silicone moulds
• paint brush / squeezy bottle / spray bottle (optional)

How to Make Ice Chalk Paint:

In a small bowl mix together 1/2 cup of cornflour, 1/2 cup of water and a good few drops of food colouring (the more you use the more vibrant the colours).

Pour into ice cube trays (I used a mix of normal and fancy shaped ones) and/or mini silicone moulds.

Repeat using as many different colours as you like. I used 4 colours in total (2 cups cornflour) which made 58 ice cubes plus the silicone moulds.

Once they’re frozen pop them out of their moulds, slip on your child’s messy play clothes (our NZ-made Craft Aprons worked a treat at keeping my kid’s clothes clean) and head outside to play.

We placed the ice chalk onto the hot concrete and enjoyed watching the bright blocks of ice slowly melt away.
Both kids loved the feel of the mixture as it melted (it’s basically just like ‘slime/gloop‘). Master 5 had fun drawing and writing his name with the chalk paint and it also makes fantastic hand and footprints.

I then gave the kids a squirty bottle and spray bottle filled with water so we could experiment and see how water affected the melting process. This kept the kids amused for quite some time! I loved the gorgeous bright colours all over the concrete.

Notes:

• The food colouring does stain the hands, however it had completely washed off my children’s hands by the next day.
• You could try using liquid watercolour or washable paint instead of food colouring to help minimise the amount of staining.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this activity or if you have any tips for reducing the staining on the hands please leave a comment below. 

For messy play inspiration and kid friendly activities sign up to our newsletter.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest for more inspiration.