Sensory play with ice is a fantastic way to stimulate children’s senses, whether it's a cozy winter day or a breezy fall afternoon. And, especially during the summer. No matter the season, ice adds a unique element to sensory activities, creating endless opportunities for fun and learning. Plus, it’s an easy activity to set up with items you likely already have at home, like an ice cube tray or sensory bins.

The best part? You can enhance ice play by adding other elements like food coloring, various textures, and even simple science experiments that encourage kids to explore and experiment. Today, I’m excited to share some of my favorite ideas for sensory play with ice that can be enjoyed throughout the year whether you're inside or out, these ideas will keep your little ones engaged and excited!

Let’s Chill Out: 10 Ideas for Sensory Play With Ice

Ice Painting DIY

This easy activity is one that your little ones might spend more time licking than playing with, but when they look this colorful and refreshing, I can’t blame them! And don’t worry, this activity is taste safe!

Grab an ice cube tray, water, food coloring, and popsicle sticks. Fill the tray up with water, add a drop of color into each slot, cut your popsicle sticks in half to mix the colors, and then leave the stick inside as they freeze overnight!  

You can use watercolor paper to let your little one’s creativity run wild as they paint with their ice, or you can allow them to explore the different sensations with the cold feeling as the ice melts and touches their body! 

Ice Cream in a Bag

If you’re hesitant to use ice cream in play activities due to the amount of sugar and additives, you’ll be relieved to know that making ice cream from scratch has benefits! It’s healthier, you know everything that’s in it, and it’s a fun bonding experience. 

Begin by pouring half & half (or heavy cream) into a small Ziplock bag. Next, add in your mix-ins like granola, fresh fruit, syrups, or even just vanilla and sugar. In a second bigger Ziploc bag, add in enough ice to fill the bag up halfway, and add rock salt. Make sure you release all the air out of your smaller bag, and then put it into the large bag!

Put some thin winter gloves on your little one for this part to protect their skin from the cold! Then, shake the bag for 6-15 minutes (you can play music and dance to make this more enjoyable), and mix the ice cream up with a spoon when you’re done for that creamy consistency!

Taste-Safe Fizzy Blocks

Sensory play can also double as fun science experiments, which is exactly what we’re doing for this activity. It’s entertaining, easy, and perfect for kids of all ages. Plus, you probably already have everything you need for this activity right in your kitchen. 

Mix together baking soda and gelatin in a bowl. In a different bowl, mix together some food coloring with water. Once that’s mixed, add in your colored water to the baking soda mixture, and pour the water into the ice cube tray. 

Once the blocks are frozen, have your kiddos pour vinegar onto them and watch them fizz away! You can even have your toddlers use a dropper to practice their fine motor skills, or ask them to mix the colors to engage their creativity!

Frozen Sea Rescue Mission

Ice and water aren’t the only holy grails when it comes to sensory activities, so are sensory bins! They transform regular sensory experiences into themed games with goals! 

Grab a plastic container and fill it with water, add in some blue food coloring to create a little mini “ocean”, and throw in a few plastic toys like dolphins, lobsters, and fish. Stick it into the freezer until it’s completely frozen, and then remove the block of ice and place it into another bin (or a casserole dish, whatever works!) 

Fill up a bowl of warm salt water and hand a dropper over to your children. Dropping this mixture onto the ice will help slowly melt it, allowing them to “rescue” the toys!

Color Ice Mixing

This activity is great for encouraging toddlers to experiment with critical thinking skills by exploring cause and effect. They’ll be mesmerized by the mixing and melting of all the different colors.

First, take three cups and fill them with water, adding a primary color with food coloring in each cup. Next, fill each ice cube tray with the colored water and freeze them overnight. The next day, add the ice cubes into empty cups and pour warm water over them to melt the ice!

You can even mix the colored ice cubes to create new colors like blue and red to make purple! You can also save the water for ice sculptures or water color painting for a later activity! 

Ice Castle

This activity is perfect for those hot summer days where you’re looking at your backyard and wishing you were at the beach. It’s just like the sea rescue mission, with a fun beach-themed twist. 

Take a sand castle mold and add in plastic toys, like the ones we used for the rescue mission activity! Fill the mold with water and set it into the freezer overnight. Once it’s completely frozen, remove the ice castle from the mold and use warm salt water to rescue the toys from the castle! 

For some added vibrant fun, you could even add drops of food coloring into the water to create a colorful ice castle!

Ice Cups for the Bath

After a hot day spent outside, cool down your kiddos with some bath time fun! Add plastic toys into the cups of a muffin tin, and fill each cup with water. Using all different colors, add a few drops of food coloring into each cup and put the tin into the freezer.

Whenever it’s bath time, add the cups from the muffin tin into the bath water. Not only will your little ones enjoy watching the bath water magically change colors, they can make a game out of removing their toys from the ice, too!

If you’re worried about the food coloring staining the tub, you can also use a natural dyeing method! Using fruits, veggies, and spices are a fantastic and safe alternative to food coloring.

Ice Cube ABC’s

This is the perfect ice activity if your little one is learning the alphabet. Not only will it facilitate learning, your toddlers will love being able to trace the letters with their fingers it’s a whole new sensory experience for letter formation! 

Grab some alphabet molds, fill them up with water, and add a few drops of food coloring into each letter. Once you’ve left them in the freezer overnight, pull them out the next day for a fun-filled ABC sensory activity! 

Keep in mind that what you can do with this activity is definitely age-dependent! For toddlers, it’s a great introduction to the alphabet. If you have any older kids, they can still play along by using the ice letters to create different words! I love a good play recipe for multiple ages!

Ice Cube Building Blocks 

Building blocks are fantastic tools for enhancing skills like hand-eye coordination, problem solving, and fine motor skills. You can easily make this an ice activity by making building blocks out of ice!

Using some empty yogurt or Jell-O cups, fill them up with water and a few drops of food coloring. Once you’ve left them in the freezer long enough, pull them out and allow your little one to explore all their buildable opportunities. 

To take this activity from taste-safe to edible, you can even swap out the food coloring for things like lemon juice, grape juice, or various vegetable juices!

Ice and Water Sensory Table 

Water play is just as practical and refreshing as ice play, you just don’t have to wait for it to freeze! For this activity, we’re going to be using a sensory table. If you don’t have a sensory table, don’t panic! A DIY sensory table is cost friendly and equally effective. 

In each bin, you can add in a different activity! Think of things like fizzy blocks in one bin and color ice mixing in another the options are endless! 

How does sensory play help a child’s development? 

Sensory play uses a kid's seven senses to help create unique learning opportunities that may be harder to accomplish otherwise. It’s beneficial for things like language and motor skills, brain and cognitive development, emotional and social development, and even creativity and connection. 

Sensory play holds a special place in my home. There are so many sensory activities that stimulate the senses simultaneously keeping your little one engaged, entertained, and excited! Making an activity interesting will teach your kids that learning can be fun! 

Which sensory play activities will you be incorporating ice into?

Ice play is a creative alternative when you want to take your sensory fun outdoors! With all of these activities, keep in mind that ice can be a choking hazard for our little ones, so keep your hawk eyes out just in case! 

For more engaging sensory activities that help your little one learn and have fun, visit the Mothercould blog! For in-depth tutorials, recipes, and household hacks, download Mothercould in your Pocket!