We love ice cream at our house! So when I found out ice cream day was coming up I was excited! I planned a few things around the ice cream day theme to extend the celebration.
Since it was ice cream day we had to make ice cream! Check out our ice cream recipe here.
Easy Ice Cream Banner
I created a simple ice cream day banner to hang up. It was an easy way to add a little more excitement into the day. I enjoy finding simple ways to get the boys excited. It only took about 15 minutes to cut out and hang up (I just used double stick tape to hang it). When the boys came down on ice cream day they were happy to see it, especially Blake since he’s now able to read! They helped them to get excited about it all day!
Simple Ice Cream Sundae Bar
Ice cream bars are a lot of fun! It is easy to go over the top though. Since I’m usually short on time I like to keep ours simple and realistic. Here are some tips on how I do that:
Be Intentional
I try to be intentional when I choose the topping and ice cream. We made vanilla ice cream because it’s a good base. We could have it plain or add chocolate syrup. I also choose toppings that I know the boys will like and we will eat after. I don’t like it when we just use a few cookies and then throw the rest of the bag away. For this ice cream bar, we used Annie’s chocolate chip cookies and Goodgirl Birthday Cake Sandwich Cookies. I smashed the cookies up and put them in a container. We also had some gummies that I mixed up and put out along with strawberry, fudge, and whip cream that we had on hand.
Use Small Bowls for Toppings
I also put the toppings in a small bowl because the boys like to take everything. By putting it in a small container I could limit the amount they took and it also looked a little fancier!
Let Them Scoop Their Ice Cream
I let Blake scoop his ice cream. I was there and he made a little mess but it’s something I want him to be able to do on his own. With all the boys they could choose one or two scoops and we counted as we scooped.
Questions to Get Them Talking
- What would be the weirdest topping to put on ice cream?
- How many scoops of ice cream can you eat and what flavors would it be?
Quick Ice Cream Drawing Activity
We are no artists here but I want the boys to be able to at least do simple drawings. So if they had to draw a picture at school they would feel confident in doing so! I’ve been trying to incorporate drawing into things we do along with following instructions. I made simple instructions for them and then had them copy it to draw their ice cream! The two younger ones did their own thing but at least they participated, while Blake did the activity the way I planned it. He was so proud of himself! After they were all done I asked them about it. They all had long stories to tell us about what flavors it was and how they’d run their ice cream store.
Questions to Get Them Talking
- What would you like to learn how to draw?
- What kinds of shapes do you see in your pictures?
Ice Cream Painting Activity
Although this is a simple activity it takes a few days to complete. The boys loved doing this because they were able to play with some water. Anything doing with water excites them!
Coloring the Cotton Balls
Supplies
- Bowl of water for each color
- Food coloring
- Droppers, pipettes, spoons
- Cotton balls (determine how big you want your ice cream to decide how many you need) )
- Tray to paint in
- Mix water and colors. I like to use red, yellow, and blue because they mix well and we can talk about color mixing.
- Put the cotton balls in the tray.
- Give the child the tools and let them drop paint onto the cotton balls.
It doesn’t have to be perfect. My boys mixed all the colors, I wasn’t sure how it would turn out but it turned out pretty!
Putting it Together
Supplies
- Paper (I used white)
- Brown marker/crayon for the cone
- Markers (I used a yellow dot a dot marker)
- Glue
It took about a day for the cotton
I used the dot a dot marker to show where each pompom should go. I then depending on their age you can determine what they can do.
For older kids, you can tell them what to do and they can glue and draw in the cone.
For preschoolers, you can draw dots for the cone and they can connect the dots and draw the cone in. Then help them glue on the pompoms.
For younger kids, you can draw the cone
Things to Get Them Talking
- What colors new colors did you make?
- If the green cotton ball was a flavor what would it be?
- What would you put your ice cream in? A cone? A candy bowl? A chocolate cone?
Simple Ice Cream PomPom Bin
This was the simplest pretend play. I just put all the pom poms I had in a tray. Added some containers, scoops, and cones from their toys then let them play! They had a lot of fun playing Ice Cream shop. They scooped, poured, and ordered. There are so many possibilities with this kind of play and the set up is quick! The other positive about this is mess-free! Yes, pompoms may go flying but you won’t be scrubbing paint off your walls, which has happened to me even when an activity is supposed to be mess-free haha.
If you had fun playing with the Ice Cream Pompom Bin be sure to check out my post on other simple and fun ways to play with pompoms here.
Easy Ice Cream Foam Play
Supplies
- Soap (I used bubble bath)
- Water
- Blender
- Scoops, play cones, sprinkles, pompoms, containers
Add water just ¼ of the way full then add your soap. Blend till it gets fluffy and bubbly!
Be sure to watch it as you blend. It suds up quickly. I filled it up with lots of water at first and it overflowed quickly on me!
After it was blended I dumped it into a bin and added extras to it. Then they played. They loved the light fluffy texture of it. We also added in ice at the end so it was cold and it extended the play a little longer!
Watching Unwrapped
When I was growing up I used to watch Unwrapped. Recently Zack started watching it and got us hooked. I did a quick search and found the ice cream episode here. It was fun to watch it with the boys. They were excited about the Freeze and Play, which is a ball you put your ice cream mixture in and play with it to turn it into ice cream. They all agreed that they would like to try making ice cream with it!
We had a fun week celebrating ice cream day! We did easy sensory bins, had a simple ice cream bar, some art, and lots of pretend play. I kept everything simple but we were still able to make memories!